Michael Avenatti destroys 'Trump sycophant' Alan Dershowitz: 'What happened to you?'

[DonViejo]

Martin Cizmar
25 SEP 2018 AT 10:14 ET

Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz wrote a book defending President Donald Trump by arguing that his alleged coordination with a hostile foreign power to use illegally obtained emails to influence the 2016 presidential campaign is not a crime.

He’s since become a Trump mouthpiece on Fox News and other networks, defending the president even as others openly mocked him.

On Tuesday, he went on Fox & Friends where he called attorney Michael Avenatti, who is representing Stormy Daniels and a woman who says she was sexually abused by Brett Kavanaugh, an “embarrassment” to their profession while also arguing a very specific notion of what the 25th Amendment means.

Avenatti did not hold back in his response, firing off a tweet that called the once-distinguished jurist a “hack” and “sycophant.

“What happened to you? You used to be revered and respected. You are now seen as nothing more than a Trump sycophant and a hack for the GOP and Fox News,” Avenatti said. “Anytime they need someone to do their bidding, they trot you out. Those mar-a-lago invites and cookies must be amazing.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/09/michael-avenatti-destroys-trump-sycophant-alan-dershowitz-happened/

[procon]

1. Ouch!

[jrthin]

2. Love Avenatti. Calls it as he sees it, and is unafraid to do so. nt

[Ferrets are Cool]

40. The most refreshing part is "UNAFRAID"

For too long, we on the left (the correct side of the aisle) have appeared to be scared of the rightwing. It's about time we understood that WE have the power, not them.

[calimary]

52. Well, we've certainly got more voters. If only they'll get off their asses

and USE that power and go VOTE.

VOTE, Dammit!

[geardaddy]

3. Dershowitz is a creep.

[ck4829]

50. +1

[Harker]

4. Dershbag in a nutshell. n/t

[Pepsidog]

5. Spot on. They must really have the goods on Dershowitz as he has become a full on Trump cultist.

[DeminPennswoods]

31. It's US Israel policy

IIRC, Dershowicz supports Likud's agenda and so does Trump/Kushner.

[RedSpartan]

6. Two words: Jeffrey Epstein

[Johnyawl]

15. yup...

...between Epstein and Roger Stone (well known participant in the NY swinger and kink communities) I'm pretty sure they have 'the goods' on anybody of note who's ever stepped out of a straight, monogamous relationship. Add in the russians hacking everybody's email and you have some unlikely people jumping on the trump bandwagon.

[LiberalArkie]

16. You have to add in the total information awareness program and the Patriot Act

gathering everything and the Michael Flynn being able to get access to it. I would imagine that they have something on every person in Washington and every state capital.

Kind of like the old KGB days.

[appleannie1943]

24. Don't forget good old Lindsey.

[Johnyawl]

30. Lindsey especially...

...one of McCain's best buddies turned trump humper. smh Pretty sure the russians found something when they hacked his email.

[Pepsidog]

46. True

[ffr]

7. Old age. Time to write off whatever Dershowitz says or writes as without merit.

[watoos]

8. I called it.

The day Avenatti announced he may run for president the Republican traitors released the hounds. The M$M will support them in trying to bring down Avenatti.

Why I recall Avenatti even had quite a few bashers here on DU.

Avenatti is the best thing that can happen to the Democratic party, he is one of the few people who can change the reich wing media narratives.

Oh and fuck Dershowitz.

[brush]

28. Agreed, and there is a lot of jealousy here on DU towards Avenatti for some reason.

So many complain about milquetoast Dems afraid to challenge the repugs and then a fighter like Avenatti who is not afraid of trump and Dershowitz et al appears and we get comments like: "I've had enough of Avenatti."

Some people are never happy.

[shanny]

34. Yeah. I just don't get that.

[Nay]

35. It's downright suspicious, is what it is. Avenatti kicks ass and takes names, and some dems

are 'concerned'? I wish the dem leadership had about a thousand Avenattis. Maybe then we wouldn't be having our asses handed to us in elections, on TV, in negotiations, etc.

[Geechie]

37. Amen to that.

Damn the torpedoes.
Bring on the Avenattis!

[LiberalFighter]

9. Which constitution does Dershowitz base his writings?

And since he is not using the laws in the United States, which country is he basing his claim that it is not a crime?

[Racerdog1]

10. Douchewitz

Suffering from the orange plague syndrome.

[AwakeAtLast]

11. Did his emails get hacked, too?

[Hermit-The-Prog]

12. popehat?

Does Dershowitz still guest-write at popehat.com? Had to stop reading there when he showed up.

[oasis]

13. Pariah Dershowitz has only the friendly confines of Fox to call home. nt

[Honeycombe8]

14. I figure I know what happened.

Doesn't everyone?

[George II]

17. "Those.....cookies must be amazing"!!

[duforsure]

18. Its because

Like with many others he has damming evidence against him more than likely and something pretty bad for him having to do this for him now, so its very likely trump has gotten something really bad on him , or he wouldn't be acting this way now. Like Graham , Ghoulianni, and others also.

[NastyRiffraff]

19. Alan and Donald, sittin' in a tree...

It really is sickening to see what Dershowitz has become. His family and friends must be embarrassed for him.

[calimary]

20. I've often thought the same thing. Dershowitz WAS, at one time, a man of sterling reputation.

I think it may have started when he was included in the O.J. defense team. And suddenly all his powers of reason and study and thoughtful protections of civil rights - went straight down the tubes. He HAD been highly regarded and respected. And now, he's nothing more than a hack for the bad guys. I, too, wonder "what happened to you?" about him. Avenatti's right. (AGAIN!)

GOT do I love Michael Avenatti!

[gibraltar72]

21. Derwoschitz just wants to be relevant again.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

45. Too late for that.

[moondust]

22. Also Israel.

Drumpfy and Dershy are Bibi boys: whatever Bibi wants Bibi gets, possibly up to and including a war with Iran.

~
“Peace for Israel, peace for the Jewish people comes through strength,” he told a sold-out fundraiser (in Australia)...
~
...he is an outspoken supporter of Israel’s West Bank occupation, and of Jewish settlements. He is also a friend of the Prime Minister’s, having first met him in 1972, when Netanyahu was studying at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

http://plus61j.net.au/australia/dershowitz-finds-hard-criticise-weakened-friend-netanyahu/

[Paladin]

23. Dershowitz deserves every bit of the scorn directed at him.

Just another example of the trump inverse Midas touch: everything and everyone he touches turns to shit.

[gordianot]

25. How many old senile creeps surround Trump?

This also describes for me most of his ardent supporters. When they find out you hate Trump they almost always come back with “Would Hillary have been better?”. My answer is always Hell Yes.

[Eliot Rosewater]

26. I thought Alan was doing it to get the SC seat.

Which truth be told, if he did, would be fantastic given the type of human filth that will occupy that seat.

But if he keeps supporting this RACIST NAZI TRAITOR then I wont understand.

[Pachamama]

27. "Those mar-a-lago invites and cookies must be amazing." Here is a video of that.....

[TlalocW]

29. A few months ago Dersh was whining about how he's not being invited to places anymore

Like Martha's Vineyard or to parties, etc. because of his Trump support as if no one had ever suffered as much as he had. The responses to his whining were delicious.

TlalocW

[trueblue2007]

32. Alan Dershowitz dirt bag

[AlexSFCA]

33. Avenatti is a fighter and effective; trump is scared of him

part of it is that he is not a politician at a time when politicians are not held in high regard

[wellst0nev0ter]

38. I'm confused

is Avenatti rehabilitated on DU or not. I'm old enough to remember when he was reviled for daring to run for president, despite the presence of other qualified Dem candidates.

[dalton99a]

36. He hit it on the head

[TwistOneUp]

39. When you're in a dirty fight...

The only way to win is to fight as dirty, if not more so, than the aggressors. They took the gloves off in 2000 with the Supremes and the crooked, partisan Bush-Gore recount.

The chickens have come home to roost, y'all...

[Caliman73]

42. I don't see what Avenatti said as "dirty fighting".

Perhaps I have a different definition of "dirty" than other people because I hear and see that word or phrase being thrown out frequently. "The Republicans fight dirty, so we have to fight dirty too".

Avanetti is certainly shifting his rhetoric from what Democrats/Liberals/Progressives have typically stated. He is not using the stilted "respectful language" that both sides use to use, which many in the Democratic leadership still use.

I take "dirty" from a sports perspective which means do not break the rules, or do not cheat. In boxing for example, you can fight hard, you can try to use psychological tools against your opponent. One boxer, Bernard Hopkins, used to do push ups between rounds to show his opponents that he had "all the energy in the world" left with which to beat them. Other boxers stand up between rounds. Perfectly clean and legal, but sometimes psychologically devastating to an opponent. Talking to your opponent is also something that stretches the rules but is not considered illegal. Hitting below the belt is "dirty fighting". Hitting after the bell...dirty. Hitting behind the head...dirty. Using elbows and feet...dirty. When I boxed as a kid, there were coaches who would show their students how to swing up and through with the elbow which could possibly create "incidental" contact with the opponent. That is a dirty tactic because the intention is to "create the accident".

Republicans are dirty. They use fake subpoenas for mailers. They use robo calls to misinform Democratic voters about election dates. They intentionally shut off funding for polling sites in Democratic Districts. They sit on nominations by a sitting President for almost a year while whining about not being able to push through a nominee under allegations, made by a president under allegations. That is dirty. Avenatti hitting back at Dershowitz, who insulted him, is not dirty. It is just being assertive and not allowing attacks to go unanswered. He did not say anything false about Dershowitz, he merely stated an opinion and a supposition that was unflattering. Fighting dirty would have been to suggest something that was entirely untrue for the purpose of tarring Dershowitz. Something the Republicans do often, like calling the former Secretary of State, "crooked Hillary".

We should not confuse "fighting back" or "fighting hard" with fighting dirty.

[TwistOneUp]

54. "Dirty"

Bad choice of words on my part. Originally, I used, "street fight". In hindsight, I find street fight to be more apropos. My bad. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!

[Caliman73]

55. No worries.

Street fights are horrendous. Best to avoid them, but yes if you are in one, then you need to do what it takes to get out alive.

My concern is trying to balance the very real need to beat the Republicans, with the very real danger of becoming too much like them by using their same tactics. Plain and simple, Republicans can't really win without some form of cheating, whether it is "legal" like their voter ID suppression schemes or their gerrymandering; or illegal like their election fraud tactics. We have to beat them, but we cannot cheat to beat them.

Avenatti is very good at responding with similar vitriol but even he keeps things true when he is being blunt.

[kwassa]

41. Dershowitz declined like Giuliani.

Both will do anything to get public attention now, regardless of how bad it makes them look.

[scarletwoman]

43. How is it that everyone seems to have forgotten that Dershowitz came out in support of TORTURE

after 9/11?

Dershowitz went to the Dark Side long before Trump slithered into the White House.

Dershowitz: Torture could be justified

Alan Dershowitz, Professor of Torture

Alan Dershowitz: Should we fight terror with torture?

To Torture or Not to Torture

[ck4829]

48. It is insane

[starphlo]

44. glad avanatti is on the left side

most of the left seems so ineffective against the right's dirty tactics. Avanatti is a breath of fresh air

[RainCaster]

47. Hell yeah!!

I wish I could say more, but y'all beat me to it.

[ck4829]

49. K&R

[tavernier]

51. Interesting read...

https://theoutline.com/post/5278/alan-dershowitz-should-not-have-had-friends-to-lose

[Fla Dem]

53. Never liked Dershowitz. Always thought he was a grandstander.