Michael Is AveNOTi Running for President

Michael Avenatti is many things: Celebrity attorney, shout-y cable news mainstay, extremely shiny. One thing he will not be, however, is president of the United States—at least, not anytime soon.

In a statement issued on Twitter on Tuesday, Avenatti announced that his period of toying with a possible run for the White House in 2020 had ended, and that he won’t be taking a shot at the Oval Office.

The announcement comes after months of the pundit class’ most gullible mush brains repeatedly gave oxygen to the idiotic notion that Avenatti could have seriously run in the first place.

Claiming that he’d consulted with his family and chose not to run “for their concerns,” Avenatti—who recently stated that his chances of running following a November arrest for domestic violence (he has not been charged) had “only gone up”—also said that he would continue to represent adult film star Stormy Daniels, whose cases against President Trump and former Trump Attorney Michael Cohen have produced decidedly mixed results.

He also stressed that he remained committed to ousting Trump in the next presidential election, writing that “we will not prevail in 2020 without a Fighter. I remain hopeful that the party finds one.”

In spite of his apparent stepping away from the political spotlight, Avenatti still runs the Fight PAC, which recently attempted to capitalize on Beto O’Rourke’s failed Senate campaign by splitting the money 50/50 between the campaign and the PAC itself. I have reached out to Avenatti to see how his decision not to run will affect the future of Fight PAC and will update this story if he responds.

In the meantime though, the sure-to-be insufferable-regardless 2020 Democratic presidential field just got a little less #Basta.

Update, 1:10 p.m.: In an email to Splinter, Avenatti confirmed that he was not abandoning the political arena altogether, writing that “the PAC will continue.”