A conservative conference
rescinds its invitation to Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos, following videos of him appearing to condone pedophilia and joking about a teenage sexual encounter with a Catholic priest.
The organizers of this week’s Conservative Political Action Conference rescinded their booking of Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos on Monday, following an outcry after the right-wing speaker’s critics resurfaced videos of him criticizing age of consent laws and joking about a teenage sexual encounter with a Catholic priest.
“Due to the revelation of an offensive video in the past 24 hours condoning pedophilia, the American Conservative Union has decided to rescind the invitation,” the group’s chairman, Matt Schlapp, said in a statement.
He added, “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.”
Hours later, his publisher canceled his book “Dangerous,” which had been scheduled to come out in June, Associated Press reported. Simon & Schuster and its Threshold Editions imprint announced that “after careful consideration” they had pulled the book, for which pre-orders placed it high on Amazon.com’s best-seller lists.
Yiannopoulos took to Facebook on Sunday night and again on Monday to defend himself as a number of conservative activists criticized him and the ACU for its invitation.
“I do not support pedophilia. Period,” Yiannopoulos wrote. “It is a vile and disgusting crime, perhaps the very worst.”
In a Facebook update Monday, Yiannopoulos conceded responsibility for the way some have interpreted his comments.
“I’m partly to blame,” he wrote. “My own experiences as a victim led me to believe I could say anything I wanted to on this subject, no matter how outrageous.”
Schlapp and other ACU board members spent much of Sunday night and Monday morning discussing how to handle the matter, which led to a torrent on of social media activity and threats of boycotts for the event, according to people familiar with the discussions.
The videos of Yiannopoulos, tweeted and retweeted Sunday night, been available online for years.
“Pedophilia is not a sexual attraction to somebody 13 years old, who is sexually mature,” he said. “Pedophilia is attraction to children who have not reached puberty. Pedophilia is attraction to people who don’t have functioning sex organs yet who have not gone through puberty.”