Breitbart Tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos apologized and resigned Tuesday amid a backlash to his reported comments about child sexual abuse.
“I do not advocate for illegal behavior,” Yiannopoulos, who described himself as a “proud free-speech warrior,” said at a news conference in Manhattan. “I do not support child abuse. It’s a disgusting crime of which I have been a victim.”
Yiannopoulos said the decision was his alone. “I would be wrong to allow my poor choice of words to detract from my colleagues’ important reporting,” he said. He thanked the site for allowing him “to carry conservative and libertarian ideas to communities that would otherwise never have heard them.”
Organizers of the Conservative Political Action Conference on Monday rescinded Yiannopoulos’ invitation to speak this week after a conservative advocacy group, Reagan Battalion, posted video clips in which he appeared to defend sexual relationships between young teenagers and adults in certain circumstances. In the video, Yiannopoulos discussed romantic relationships between teenage boys and adult men while being interviewed for the Drunken Peasants podcast in early 2016. Asked whether he was advocating for “cross-generational relationships,” Yiannopoulos said: “Yeah, I don’t mind admitting that. “And I think particularly in the gay world, and outside the Catholic Church — if that’s where some of you want to go with this — I think in the gay world some of the most important, enriching and incredibly life-affirming, important shaping relationships very often between younger boys and older men,” he said. “They can be hugely positive experiences.”
