Milo Yiannopoulos, the conservative provocateur whose comments on race have been assailed by Democrats and Republicans alike, resigned Tuesday from his senior editor position at Breitbart News.
In recent days, nearly a dozen reporters at the conservative news organization had threatened to resign if Yiannopoulos was not fired for remarks he made that critics said endorsed pedophilia.
Moreover, Yiannopoulos was supposed to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference this week, but his invitation to speak was rescinded Monday. Yiannopoulos denounced pedophilia and said his words were taken out context.
"Breitbart News has stood by me when others caved," he said in a statement Tuesday. "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."
Shortly after it was announced he would speak at CPAC, a viral online video was released, showing Yiannopoulos making comments that many felt were supportive of pedophilia.
"In the homosexual world, particularly, some of those relationships between younger boys and older men _ the sort of 'coming of age' relationship _ those relationships in which those older men help those young boys discover who they are and give them security and safety and provide them with love and a reliable, sort of rock, where they can't speak to their parents," he said.
Last month, the University of California, Berkley canceled a speech Yiannopoulos was set to deliver after violent protests erupted.
