Milo Yiannopoulos resigns from Breitbart

Milo Yiannopoulos on Tuesday announced his resignation from Breitbart News, according to New York Times reporter Michael M. Grynbaum.

“Breitbart News has stood by me when others caved,” Yiannopoulos said in a statement. “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. This decision is mine alone," he added.

“They have allowed me to carry conservative and libertarian ideas to communities that would otherwise never have heard them. They have been a significant factor in my success. I’m grateful for that freedom and for the friendships I forged there.”

Yiannopoulos, who served as the senior editor of Breitbart's technology section, frequently launched bigoted attacks against women, overweight people, non-Christians, transgender individuals and immigrants during his "Dangerous Faggot" college tours. Recently, a conservative blog published a 2016 video in which the right-wing provocateur spoke out against laws against statutory rape.

Yiannopoulos argued some 13-year-old boys are old enough to consent to sexual relationships with adults. He added that adults who have sex with underage teenagers are not pedophiles.

"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," he said.

The Conservative Political Action Conference rescinded its invitation to Yiannopoulos and Simon & Schuster canceled the publication of his book Dangerous after the recording was highlighted by various news outlets.

Yiannopoulos said in a Facebook post that he was disgusted by sexual abuse and pedophilia.

"I am a gay man, and a child abuse victim."

"I would like to restate my utter disgust at adults who sexually abuse minors. I am horrified by pedophilia and I have devoted large portions of my career as a journalist to exposing child abusers. I've outed three of them, in fact -- three more than most of my critics. And I've repeatedly expressed disgust at pedophilia in my feature and opinion writing. My professional record is very clear," Yiannopoulos wrote.

"But I do understand that these videos, even though some of them are edited deceptively, paint a different picture."

"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. 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," Yiannopoulos said.

Employees at Breitbart News were reportedly ready to leave the publication if Yiannopoulos wasn't ousted from his position.