Milo Yiannopoulos, the controversial writer and alt-right journalist, has resigned from Breitbart News after a video surfaced in which he appeared to condone pedophilia.
Yiannopoulos, who describes himself as “the most fabulous supervillain on the internet” on his official Facebook page, issued a press release on Tuesday announcing his immediate resignation. “This decision is mine alone,” the statement reads in part:
Break: MILO resigns from Breitbart pic.twitter.com/pSQnJ0b9vA
— Michael M. Grynbaum (@grynbaum) February 21, 2017
On Sunday a video posted on Twitter showed Yiannopoulos in apparent support of sexual relationships with children.
“No, no, no. You’re misunderstanding what pedophilia means,” he says on the video. “Pedophilia is not a sexual attraction to somebody 13 years old who is sexually mature. Pedophilia is attraction to children who have not reached puberty.”
Following the revelation, a prominent speaking gig at the Conservative Political Action Conference and book deal with publisher Simon & Schuster were both rescinded on Monday. It was widely speculated Yiannopoulos’s future at Breitbart was also in doubt.
“When your friends have done right by you, you do right by them.”Yiannopoulos’ statement concluded. “For me, now, that means stepping aside so my colleagues at Breitbart can get back to the great work they do.”