New York’s 1st district supported Trump in 2020
CNN’s Avlon rejects idea Biden has been slow to call out left-wing violence
CNN’s John Avlon disagreed with political commentator Scott Jennings about Biden’s responses to violence from the right and the left.
Former CNN anchor and political analyst John Avlon, who was among the network’s fiercest critics of former President Trump, is running for Congress as a Democrat in a New York district that supported the man he spent years bashing.
Avlon announced in February that he would exit CNN to "defeat Donald Trump" and "his MAGA minions" in the 1st Congressional District, where he is running to unseat Republican Rep. Nick LaLota. Located in the eastern part of Long Island, it's rated "likely Republican" by the Cook Political Report and favored Trump by 1.8% in the 2020 election.
"If he wins, I would expect John Avlon to be just as much of a partisan Democrat in Congress as he was at CNN," NewsBusters executive editor Tim Graham told Fox News Digital.
"It's common for politicians to talk about appealing to swing voters, but that's not what Avlon did at CNN," Graham continued. "He'll be more like Adam Schiff than like Jared Golden."
FORMER CNN ANCHOR RUNNING FOR CONGRESS AS DEMOCRAT IN NEW YORK: DEFEAT TRUMP'S 'MAGA MINIONS'
Former CNN political analyst John Avlon is running as a Democrat in New York's first congressional district race. (CNN/Screenshot)
Avlon has pitched himself as a moderate, "common-sense" Democrat, getting the "centrist" label in favorable profiles from New York Magazine and Vanity Fair, as well as a derisive one from the far-left Intercept. Avlon said he's never been a Republican and volunteered for Bill Clinton's presidential campaign, but he also worked for Republican New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani as a speechwriter. He's since strongly turned against his former boss since Giuliani went all in for Trump.
Avlon called on Democrats to "reach out" to independents and the "center-right" in his Democratic primary victory speech in June, noting he was running in a swing district.
"I'm a common-sense Democrat," he said. "We're liberal patriots and pragmatic problem-solvers."
Avlon’s disdain for Trump and his supporters runs deep and began in 2015 when he was the editor-in-chief of the far-left Daily Beast. At the time, Daily Beast writer Noah Shachtman said that anyone renting in a Trump building or playing a round of golf at a Trump resort is "supporting racism and neo-fascism."
Avlon rushed to his staffers’ defense, saying Shachtman was entitled to his opinion and the organization’s mission includes standing up to "bullies, bigots and hypocrites."
Weeks before the 2016 presidential election, Avlon wrongly declared Trump "lost the presidency" when the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape showed him using lewd language discussing women on a hot mic.
"Conservative supporters have been played for fools by Con Man Donald," Avlon wrote. "For Republicans, this is a time to head to the lifeboats."
Trump proved Avlon wrong and defeated Hillary Clinton, prompting The Daily Beast to add an editor’s note that the "column now reads as a classic example of why prediction is a bad business to be in."
After Trump won, The Daily Beast declared it would be part of the "loyal opposition" against the president. He even insisted The Daily Beast would refrain from covering Trump on Sunday mornings, calling it "Sabbath for sanity."
EX-CNN ANCHOR WINS NY DEM PRIMARY TO CHALLENGE BIDEN-DISTRICT REPUBLICAN NICK LALOTA
John Avlon regularly attacked former President Trump during his time at CNN. (CNN)
In 2018, Avlon gushed about how The Daily Beast "roared back and took on Trump."
"The dark, surreal rise of Trump from reality show star to Wingnut populist to president of the United States was right in The Beast’s strike zone - a story that combined politics, pop-culture and power," Avlon wrote.
That same year, Avlon became a full-time CNN analyst at the height of the network’s Jeff Zucker-era pivot to anti-Trump opinion programming. Avlon fit right in where his "Reality Check" segments were frequently used to bash Trump, regularly insisting the former president was a threat to democracy and that "derangement syndrome" had infected his supporters.
In 2020, Avlon compared Trump and his supporters who contested the presidential election to "Confederates" in support of slavery under the guise of states' rights.
Avlon said in January that you "can’t overstate enough the amount of instability, chaos and degradation of democracy, which would result from Donald Trump being elected" and people who think Trump will defend democracy are "delusional."
DONALD TRUMP WAS ALMOST ASSASSINATED ONE MONTH AGO. OUR MEDIA HAS MOVED ON. VOTERS HAVE NOT
Former President Trump has been regularly criticized by former CNN pundit John Avlon. (Alex Brandon)
Avlon also praised the infamous letter from former intelligence officials making evidence-free claims that Hunter Biden's laptop was a Russian disinformation operation.
"It matters big-time," Avlon said. "What doesn’t matter is if people are tired of hearing about Russian disinformation efforts, because they’re happening in this election. We know that. It is critically important to have 50 former members of the intelligence community come forward. In fact, it parallels something I heard in an interview with a former national counterterrorism expert, saying it has all the hallmarks of a Russian disinformation campaign."
Avlon stood by his previous rhetoric when reached for comment.
"Donald Trump is everything I've said he is, and he's also the reason Suffolk County families don't have the state and local tax deduction," Avlon told Fox News Digital.
"I’ve been warning about the dangers of hyper-partisanship and polarization for decades," he added.
Avlon, whose wife Margaret Hoover is a conservative PBS host and the great-granddaughter of President Herbert Hoover, quickly mentioned Trump when asked about the issues he’s running on during an April profile in New York Magazine.
"The No. 1 issue is affordability. There’s Donald Trump, defense of democracy, and there’s affordability and abortion," Avlon told the outlet.
Trump has endorsed LaLota, writing on Truth Social, "Nick is fighting hard to Grow the Economy and Lower Inflation, Defend our Great Military and Police, Secure our Border, Uphold the Rule of Law, and Protect our Constitutional Rights. Nick LaLota has my Complete and Total Endorsement!"
Fox News Digital’s Kristine Parks and Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.
