特朗普支持者、极右网站编辑因恋童癖言论辞职

Milo Yiannopoulos, the conservative polemicist whose endorsement of pedophilia instigated outrage over the weekend, resigned Tuesday from Breitbart News, the hard-right news and opinion website where he was an editor.

“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 said in an announcement.

“This decision is mine alone,” he said.

Yiannopoulos’ resignation followed days of tumult that intensified over the weekend after a conservative group called the Reagan Battalion posted a video that showed him condoning sexual relations between men and boys as young as 13 and jokingly dismissing the gravity of pedophilia by Roman Catholic priests.

On Monday, the organizers of the Conservative Political Action Conference revoked their invitation for Yiannopoulos to speak this week, and publisher Simon & Schuster said it was canceling the publication of his book, “Dangerous.”

Yiannopoulos attempted to explain his comments in posts on his Facebook page, saying he was a victim of his own “British sarcasm, provocation and gallows humor,” but his explanations appeared to have little effect.

In a statement Tuesday, Breitbart News praised Yiannopoulos’ “bold voice,” adding — in words sure to inflame some liberals — that the provocateur had “sparked much-needed debate on important cultural topics confronting universities, the LGBTQ community, the press, and the tech industry.”

A spokesman for Breitbart said that the site’s management accepted Yiannopoulos’ resignation.

Alex Marlow, the editor-in-chief of Breitbart, called Yiannopoulos’ comments about pedophilia “indefensible” and “appalling.” But Marlow, speaking on Breitbart’s daily radio show Tuesday, also defended Yiannopoulos, saying there was no evidence Yiannopoulos had acted as a sexual predator and that he had been a victim of a “coordinated hit” by liberal groups intent on hurting his ascent.

This is not the first time that Yiannopoulos, a staunch defender of the so-called alt-right and an avid supporter of President Donald Trump, has inspired outrage. His provocative, critical statements about Muslims, transgender people, immigrants and women’s rights have angered liberals and conservatives alike, and his lectures on college campuses have been met with protests that have at times turned violent. Several weeks ago, his planned speech at the University of California, Berkeley, was canceled after rioters set fires and smashed windows. (The cancellation, in turn, prompted a debate about free speech while also drawing a rebuke from Trump on Twitter.)