Board Member Slams Milo Yiannopoulos Invite To CPAC

UPDATE: Feb. 20 ― Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos has been disinvited from the annual Conservative Political Action Conference this week “due to the revelation of an offensive video in the past 24 hours condoning pedophilia,” according to a statement CPAC released Monday.

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Original story below:

A board member of the American Conservative Union on Sunday criticized the decision to invite Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos to the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland this week after video surfaced that appeared to show the far-right agitator defending pedophilia.

Ned Ryun, founder and CEO of the political organization the American Majority, said on Twitter that the ACU board was not consulted in the decision to invite Yiannopoulos to speak at CPAC. He shared a link to a story of Yiannopoulos defending sexual relationships between adults and 13-year-old boys.

The ACU board consists of a few dozen other prominent conservatives, including White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist, and John Bolton, who is in the running to be President Donald Trump’s next national security adviser. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are scheduled to address CPAC later this week.

In the videos, which were posted online Sunday, Yiannopoulos can be heard defending “relationships between younger boys and older men,” saying that society tends to “get hung up on this sort of child abuse stuff.”

Yiannopoulos responded in a post on Facebook, stating that the videos of him were “selectively edited.”

“I do not support pedophilia. Period,” he said. “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.”

ACU President Matt Schlapp defended the decision to invite the controversial agitator, who is known for his many racist, sexist and transphobic positions, as a way to highlight “what is happening in colleges” across the country “even [with] a speaker we don’t always agree with.”