Milo Yiannopoulos: Berkeley riot 'self-defeating for the social justice left'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos said Wednesday that the riot that canceled his planned speech at the University of California-Berkeley was "heavily ironic and very, I think, self-defeating for the social justice left."
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Yiannopoulos' planned talk was scrapped after violent protesters hurled smoke bombs, broke windows and started a bonfire outside the student union where he was to appear.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"No one’s safety is at risk from different opinions," Yiannopoulos told "Tucker Carlson Tonight" in a phone interivew. "No one’s physical safety is endangered by political ideas from a speaker on campus, but universities have sort of allowed this stuff to happen, and even in some cases encouraged it."
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The Berkeley appearance was to be the 32-year-old's last stop on a nationwide college tour that has sparked protests and occasional violence. Yiannopoulos told Carlson that he believes the protesters view him as a proxy for President Donald Trump, whom he vocally supports.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I annoy the feminists and the Black Lives Matter guys probably almost as much as Trump does, certainly on college campuses," Yiannopoulos said. "So, they go for the next best thing. They go for ... the person they think they can scare. Well, they don’t scare me. I will continue to give college talks until the day I drop dead."
Yiannopoulos has made remarks in the past that have been criticized as racist, misogynist, and anti-Muslim.
Of his opponents, Milo said, "They never want to debate because they’re scared of losing. They don’t have the facts on their side and for 30 years the left has been able to bully people into silence by name-calling and they’ve forgotten how to argue."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"UC Berkeley condemns in the strongest possible terms the actions of individuals who invaded the campus, infiltrated a crowd of peaceful students, and used violent tactics to close down the event. We deeply regret that the violence unleashed by this group undermined the First Amendment rights of the speaker as well as those who came to lawfully assemble and protest his presence," university spokesman Dan Mogulof responded.