Milo Yiannopoulos reacts to Maryland newspaper killings: 'I wasn't serious' about hoping journalists would be shot
Well before any motive or suspect was announced in Thursday鈥檚 mass shooting at a Maryland newspaper, racist "alt-right" figure Milo Yiannopoulos was already playing defense about comments he recently made saying he was looking forward to vigilantes 鈥済unning journalists down on sight.鈥�
The former Breitbart editor published a pair of Instagram posts on June 28 after the and woundings of multiple others at the Capital Gazette newspaper in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. In those posts, he said that his earlier comments were simply 鈥渁 troll鈥� and predicted that he would be blamed for the killings. He also said that if any aspect of the shooting turned out to be tied to his remarks, the fault would be with the journalists who reported his quotes in the first place. He added: 鈥淚 regret nothing I said.鈥�
鈥淚 sent a troll about 鈥榲igilante death squads鈥� as a private response to a few hostile journalists who were asking me for comment, as a way of saying, 鈥楩--- off.鈥� They then published it!鈥� in a post on Instagram that included a photo of him shrugging his shoulders with a gun on his lap. 鈥淎mazed they were pretending to take it as a 鈥榯hreat,鈥� I reposted their stories here to mock them 鈥� and make it clear that I wasn鈥檛 serious.鈥�
Yiannopoulos鈥檚 comments about 鈥済unning journalists down鈥� were first published earlier this week by The Daily Beast and the New York Observer.
The first quote was on June 26 as part of an article that mentioned Yiannopoulos had joined the far-right U.K. Independence Party. Asked by the reporter about his membership, Yiannopoulos reportedly replied in an email: 鈥渃an鈥檛 wait for the vigilante squads to start gunning journalists down on sight!鈥�
The later the same day that Yiannopoulos made a similar comment in a text message when asked about Manhattan restaurant where he鈥檇 dined: 鈥淚 can鈥檛 wait for the vigilante squads to start gunning journalists down on sight.鈥�
Law enforcement had released only bare details of the newspaper killings when Yiannopoulos took to Instagram about the matter. There was no indication of the shooter鈥檚 name or motive. Still, a number of Twitter users had already brought up his remarks in light of the shooting.
鈥淭he bodies are barely cold but journalists are already exploiting them to score political points against me. It鈥檚 disgusting,鈥� in his second Instagram post about the shooting, which featured a photo of him posing with a gun in his hand. 鈥淚 regret nothing I said, though of course like any normal person I am saddened to hear of needless death.鈥�
Yiannopoulos, who was in 2016 after leading a harassment campaign of Ghostbusters actor Leslie Jones, said on Thursday following the shooting that he had been suspended from the financial transaction sites Venmo and PayPal. The notice he shared said he was banned 鈥渂ecause safety is Venmo鈥檚 number one priority.鈥� The notice he shared said it was 鈥渄ue to the nature of your activities.鈥�
Last week, Yiannopoulos used PayPal to attempt to troll a Jewish journalist by sending her $14.88. The is a popular hate symbol in white supremacist and neo-Nazi circles 鈥� 14 is used to represent the 鈥�14 Words鈥� mantra about securing 鈥渁 future for white children,鈥� while 88 is a shorthand for 鈥淗eil Hitler,鈥� the letter H being the eighth letter of the alphabet.
