‘I was mistaken to have supported him’: Milo Yiannopoulos loses billionaire backer

THE conservative provocateur has shrugged off being dumped by his billionaire financial backer ahead of his Australian tour.

Milo Yiannopoulos said he was ‘grateful for Bob’s help’. Picture: Mary Altaffer/AP

CONTROVERISAL media personality Milo Yiannopoulos has lost the support of one of his major financial backers, billionaire Robert Mercer.

Mr Mercer, a high-profile supporter of US President Donald Trump, Steven Bannon and conservative news website Breitbart, on Thursday announced he was stepping down as co-chief executive of his $US50 billion hedge fund Renaissance Technologies and cutting funding from Milo Inc.

In an open letter to investors, the 71-year-old distanced himself both from Mr Bannon and Yiannopoulos, Breitbart’s former technology editor, complaining that he had been smeared as a racist by the press.

“Of the many mischaracterisations made of me by the press, the most repugnant to me have been the intimations that I am a white supremacist or a member of some other noxious group,” he wrote.

“Discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, creed, or anything of that sort is abhorrent to me. But more than that, it is ignorant.”

The move comes after BuzzFeed last month published emails which showed Yiannopoulos sought input on his Breitbart work from white nationalists. The site also released a video from 2016 showing Yiannopoulos singing “America the Beautiful” at a karaoke bar while audience members, including white supremacist Richard Spencer, gave Nazi salutes.

Yiannopoulos told BuzzFeed at the time that he had in the past found “humour in breaking taboos and laughing at things that people tell me are forbidden to joke about”, and said his “severe myopia” meant he didn’t see the Nazi salutes.

“[Everyone] who knows me also knows I’m not a racist,” he said. “As someone of Jewish ancestry, I of course condemn racism in the strongest possible terms. I have stopped making jokes on these matters because I do not want any confusion on this subject.

“I disavow Richard Spencer and his entire sorry band of idiots. I have been and am a steadfast supporter of Jews and Israel. I disavow white nationalism and I disavow racism and I always have.”

Protesters at a Milo event. Picture: David McNew/Getty Images/AFP

In his letter to investors, Mr Mercer was scathing.

“I supported Milo Yiannopoulos in the hope and expectation that his expression of views contrary to the social mainstream and his spotlighting of the hypocrisy of those who would close down free speech in the name of political correctness would promote the type of open debate and freedom of thought that is being throttled on many American college campuses today,” he wrote.

“But in my opinion, actions of and statements by Mr Yiannopoulos have caused pain and divisiveness undermining the open and productive discourse that I had hoped to facilitate. I was mistaken to have supported him, and for several weeks have been in the process of severing all ties with him.”

Mr Mercer added that “for personal reasons”, he had decided to sell his stake in Breitbart to his daughters. In response, Yiannopoulos posted a brief statement on his Facebook page. “Another round of press declaring me dead! It’s getting sad for the media,” he wrote.

“They are so desperate to see me fail. And I keep on succeeding. Poor lambs. I am grateful for Bob’s help in getting me this far in my career. I wish him and the family all the best.”

Ben Shapiro, former editor-at-large at Breitbart who left the site last year, told Vanity Fair it seemed like Mr Mercer was separating his “image from his money-making capacity”, rather than “an actual disassociation with the people he funded for so long”.

“The only person who’s really damaged here is Yiannopoulos,” he said. “[Mr Mercer’s daughter Rebekah is] gonna continue funding Breitbart, [and] there’s no repentance or shift here ... it’s just a PR manoeuvre to [take] pressure off his hedge-fund investors.”

Yiannopoulos, an anti-Islam and anti-feminism campaigner whose appearances regularly attract violent left-wing protesters, is due to speak in Adelaide, Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and the Gold Coast on his “Troll Academy Tour” from November 30 to December 7.

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