Controversial far-right journalist Milo Yiannopoulos has been disinvited from speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference, American Conservative Union Chair Matt Schlapp announced in a statement Monday.
Schlapp cited an “offensive” video that had recently emerged showing Yiannopoulos “condoning pedophilia.”
Yiannopoulos issued an apology for the comments on his Facebook page:
“I’m partly to blame. My own experiences as a victim led me to believe I could say anything I wanted to on this subject, no matter how outrageous,” he writes. “But I understand that my usual blend of British sarcasm, provocation and gallows humor might have come across as flippancy, a lack of care for other victims or, worse, ‘advocacy.’ I deeply regret that. People deal with things from their past in different ways.”
“We realize that Mr. Yiannopoulos has responded on Facebook, but it is insufficient. It is up to him to answer the tough questions and we urge him to immediately further address these disturbing comments,” Schlapp wrote in his statement.
The videos were released on Twitter by The Reagan Battalion, a conservative blog. In the videos, Yiannopoulos appears to defend “relationships between younger boys and older men.”
Clarifying these remarks on Facebook, Yiannopoulos writes, “I do not advocate for illegal behavior. I explicitly say on the tapes that I think the current age of consent is ‘about right.'”
Here is one excerpt from the tapes, highlighted by New York Magazine:
In the homosexual world particularly, some of those relationships between younger boys and older men the sort of coming of age relationships, relationships in which those older men have helped those young boys to discover who they are and give them security and safety and provide them with love and a reliable — and sort of a rock where they can’t speak to their parents.
Yiannopoulos released the following statement on Facebook:
Here is Schlapp’s full statement on Yiannopoulos’ dis-invitation from CPAC:
Tweet Embed:
https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/833741724694487043
“@ACUConservative has decided to rescind the invitation of Milo Yiannopoulos to speak at #CPAC2017.” pic.twitter.com/sVWGnPCW7C
Here’s is the video of Yiannopoulos released by The Reagan Battalion:
Editor’s note: Milo Yiannopoulos has previously authored columns published by Business Insider.
