Michael Avenatti says the next Democratic presidential nominee 'better be a white male'

If Michael Avenatti wanted to completely implode presidential ambitions for the 2020 election, he couldn't have asked for much better dynamite than the newest profile of the pugnacious lawyer in Time.

In addition to revealing a checkered history of personal and business conflicts that include accusations of child neglect and fraudulently representing a law firm's finances, the profile documents Avenatti joking about having sex with first daughter Ivanka Trump and declaring that the next Democratic presidential nominee "better be a white male."

“When you have a white male making the arguments, they carry more weight,” Avenatti told reporters Molly Ball and Alana Abramson. “Should they carry more weight? Absolutely not. But do they? Yes.”

As many observers quickly pointed out, this claim is quickly refuted if one simply remembers who the last Democratic president was. President Barack Obama was a wildly successful politician and ended up leaving office as a popular president, so it's not clear why anyone should put any stock in Avenatti's obviously wrong — not to mention racist and misogynistic — claim about 2020 politics. Such a gross misjudgment of the country and of what basic decency demands should be disqualifying on its own for a presidential bid.