Milo Yiannopoulos, the right-wing writer who has been at the center of a controversy over comments he made that seemed to endorse sex between men and young teens, has resigned from Breitbart, the news website where he gained fame as a conservative lightning rod.
Yiannopoulos, a senior editor, announced his resignation from the site — formerly headed up by presidential advisor Stephen Bannon — ahead of a planned press conference on Tuesday afternoon. He called the right-wing site a “significant factor” in his success.
This past weekend, a blog called the Reagan Battalion had circulated video of Yiannopoulos talking about his sexual history as a gay man and how he believed teen boys as young as 13 should be able to give consent. He later apologized and said he had poorly worded his comments.
“I would be wrong to allow my poor choice of words to detract from my colleagues’ important reporting, so today I am resigning from Breitbart, effective immediately,” Yiannopoulos, 33, said in a statement. “This decision is mine alone.”
Yiannopoulos, who has been heavily criticized for Islamophobic, anti-Semitic, racist and misogynist comments, later claimed the interview, in which he also talks about Jews being disproportionately represented in banking and the media, (his mother is Jewish but he was raised a Catholic) had been edited and that he in no way wanted to change the age of consent. But as a result of widespread criticism of his comments, he was disinvited Monday from speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference this week and publisher Simon & Schuster canceled his forthcoming book, “Dangerous.”
In a longer statement posted on his Facebook page that was delivered at his press conference, Yiannopoulos, who spoke at greater length about being sexually abused as a child by two men, including a priest, said his book would still come out next year as planned, since other publishers were interested, and that he will be donating 10 percent of his royalties from the book to child sex abuse charities. He also said he would announce a new “independently funded media venture” and a tour.
“This is a cynical media witch hunt from people who don’t care about children,” he said.
Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup or on Facebook.
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