Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos resigned Tuesday after video surfaced in which the controversial figure appeared to condone sex with underage boys as young as 13.
"Breitbart News has stood by me when others caved. They have allowed me to carry conservative and libertarian ideas to communities that would otherwise never have heard them," Yiannopoulos said in a statement given to New York Times reporter Michael Grynbaum. "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."
During a news conference Tuesday, Yiannopoulos said he strongly opposes the sexual abuse of children. He said the comments, sparked by his experience as a victim of abuse, were meant as dark humor and were being taken out of context.
"When I was 16, two men touched in ways they should not have," Yiannopoulos said. "One of those men was a priest."
Yiannopoulos said while he hadn't viewed himself as a victim in the past, "clearly, I am one."
"In the years after what happened I fell into alcohol and nihilistic partying," he said. "It lasted well into my 20's. A few years ago, I realized it was time to do something good with my life. I started focusing on work. But the black comedy, the gallows humor and love of shock value I developed in my 20s never really went away."
"I've reviewed the tapes that appeared a few days ago, in the proper context, and I don't believe that they say what is being reported, nonetheless I do say some things on the tapes that I do not mean and which do not reflect my views."
He said he was horrified that some got the impression that he was advocating sex with children.
Break: MILO resigns from Breitbart pic.twitter.com/pSQnJ0b9vA
— Michael M. Grynbaum (@grynbaum) February 21, 2017
Yiannopoulos, known for sparking outrage with his provocative positions, had also gone too far for publisher Simon & Schuster, which pulled the plug on his book deal, and the organizers of the Conservative Action Committee, who withdrew a speaking invitation to him Monday.
"After careful consideration, Simon & Schuster and its Threshold Editions imprint have canceled publication of Dangerous by Milo Yiannopoulos," the publisher said in a statement Monday.
In the video — which appears to be a recording of an interview with Yiannopoulos during a Joe Rogan and Drunken Peasants podcast — Yiannopoulos, a gay man, defends relationships between older men and teen boys.
"In the homosexual world particularly, some of those relationships between younger boys and older men are sort coming-of-age relationships," said Yiannopoulos. "Those older men help the young boys to discover who they are and give them security and safety and provide them with love."
One of the hosts said what Yiannopoulos advocated reminded him of the sexual abuse scandal among Catholic priests.
"And do you know what? I'm grateful for Father Michael," Yiannopoulos replied.
A self-described "supervillain," much of the British-born Yiannopoulos' celebrity is fueled by his incendiary assaults on political correctness. For example, he started the #FeminismIsCancer hashtag and called rape culture "fake." Such statements have made anathema to large groups of college students. The provocateur was met with angry protests as several stops along his recent campus speak tour, including a violent one at the University of California-Berkeley that led to his appearance being canceled.
