Calls Video Remarks ‘Poor Choice of Words’
Minutes before a scheduled press conference so-called “alt-right” figurehead and professional provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos released a statement announcing he has resigned from the far right wing website Breitbart, where he served as a senior editor.
“Breitbart News has stood by me when others caved,” the press release states. It calls the website “a significant factor” in his success.
“I would be wrong to allow my poor choice of words to detract from my colleagues’ important reporting,” he write, explaining his resignation.
Yiannopoulos has been under fire after a video resurfaced showing him condoning and defending – some have said advocating for – sexual relationships between adult men and teenaged boys as young as 13 or 14. Yiannopoulos has said he is not a pedophile and in a series of Facebook posts insisted his remarks were mischaracterized.
Breitbart’s editor-in-chief Tuesday morning called the release of the video an attack “by proxy” on President Donald Trump and his Chief White House Strategist Steve Bannon, who served as Breitbart’s publisher.
Monday evening Yiannopoulos lost his $250,000 book deal in a belated move by his publisher, Simon & Schuster, which said it took them “careful consideration” to reach the correct conclusion. He also lost a speaking invitation at CPAC, the annual conservative confab, over his remarks.
Breitbart issued this statement:
Some responses via Twitter:
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