Scandal at CPAC After Unearthed Video Shows Milo Yiannopoulos Defending Sex Between Children and Adults

Right-wing provocateur and alt-right mascot Milo Yiannopoulos has been disinvited from this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) after initially being booked as the conference's keynote speaker. CPAC rescinded the offer following the emergence of multiple clips of Yiannopoulos defending “cross-generational” relationships between “younger boys and older men.” The videos also show Yiannopoulos suggesting he had a sexual relationship with an older male priest as a young teen.

The speaking roster for CPAC included Mike Pence, Steve Bannon, Reince Priebus and Ted Cruz. President Donald Trump, who was captured on a 2005 video bragging that fame allowed him to grab women “by the pussy,” will also be on hand.

Conservative media outlet Reagan Battalion dug up footage from Yiannopoulos’ appearance on the Drunken Peasants webcast in 2016. In a roundtable discussion, the new darling of the alt-right says it’s his “controversial point of view” that children as young as 13 can be in consenting sexual relationships with adults.

“We’re talking about 13 [year-olds], 25 [year-olds]; 13 [year olds], 28 [year-olds]—these things do happen, perfectly consensually,” Yiannopoulos says early on in the clip.

Start watching at 58:30 to hear the most controversial sections of the conversation.

“We get hung up on this kind of child abuse stuff to the point where we’re heavily policing even relationships between consenting adults, you know, grad students and professors at universities,” he continues.

After a discussion of why age-of-consent laws exist, Yiannopoulos offers more insight into his thinking. “There are certainly people who are capable of giving consent at a younger age. I certainly consider myself to be one of them, people who are sexually active younger. I think it particularly happens in the gay world, by the way.”

Here, Yiannopoulos manages to shoehorn in insults to “the left” for its “stupid one-size-fits-all policing of culture” that dares to object to children being sexually involved with adults.

“This arbitrary and oppressive idea of consent, which totally destroys, you know, understanding that many of us have [of] of the complexities and subtleties and complicated nature of many relationships,” Yiannopoulos stated. “You know, people are messy and complex. In the homosexual world particularly. Some of those relationships between younger boys and older men, the sort of coming-of-age relationships, the relationships in which those older men help those young boys to discover who they are, and give them security and safety and provide them with love and a reliable sort of a rock where they can’t speak to their parents.”

Another panelist interjects to compare Yiannopoulos’ description to “Catholic priest molestation.”

“And you know what,” Yiannopoulos responds, “I’m grateful for Father Michael. I wouldn’t give nearly such good head if it wasn’t for him.”

He goes on to suggest that his co-panelist is “misunderstanding what pedophilia means. Pedophilia is not a sexual attraction to somebody [who is] 13 years old who is sexually mature. 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... That’s not what we are talking about.”

“You are advocating for cross-generational relationships here,” a co-panelist says. “Can we be honest about that?”

“Yeah, I don’t mind admitting that,” Yiannopoulos responds. “I think particularly in the gay world and outside the Catholic church, if that’s where some of you want to go with this, I think in the gay world, some of the most important, enriching and incredibly life-affirming, important, shaping relationships very often between younger boys and older men, they can be hugely positive experiences for those young boys, they can even save those young boys from desolation, from suicide, providing they’re consensual.”

In another video from 2015, Yiannopoulos discusses the topic on the podcast of comedian Joe Rogan. The conversation centers on Yiannopoulos’ sexual relationship at age 14 with an older priest.

“He was a terrible person” Rogan says of the alleged perpetrator.

“It wasn’t molestation,” Yiannopoulos says. “It was perfectly consensual.”

“That’s absolutely molestation,” Rogan reaffirms.

Soon after the videos began making the rounds, Ned Ryun—who sits on the board of the American Conservative Union, the organization behind CPAC—took to Twitter to complain that the board of directors hadn’t been consulted to approve Yiannopoulos’ appearance. 

CNN’s Jake Tapper also used social media to voice outrage, stating that a conservative friend who had been sexually abused as a child “could not be more distraught by this Milo tape.”

“My friend, a survivor of sex trafficking: ‘Milo straight up defended abusing 13 yr old boys... Please don't let that be normalized,’” Tapper posted in one message.

In a lengthy Facebook post, Yiannopoulos defended himself against charges of promoting pedophilia.

“I do not support pedophilia. Period,” the post opens. “It is a vile and disgusting crime, perhaps the very worst. There are selectively edited videos doing the rounds, as part of a co-ordinated effort to discredit me from establishment Republicans, that suggest I am soft on the subject. If it somehow comes across (through my own sloppy phrasing or through deceptive editing) that I meant any of the ugly things alleged, let me set the record straight: I am completely disgusted by the abuse of children.”

Last Friday, Yiannopoulos appeared on Bill Maher’s weekly political panel show. The host lobbed light-as-a-feather softballs in an opening segment, and later showed tacit approval for Yiannopoulos’ transphobia. A viral clip captured guest Larry Wilmore telling Yiannopoulos, who accused two panelists of having low IQs because they disagreed with his far-right opinions, to “go f*ck yourself.”