Following a report from the Gateway Pundit on Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks’ dark history of racism, sexism, and pro-rape commentary — the progressive icon issued an apology of sorts, blaming it on him being a Republican at the time.

Uygur was over 30 at the time of the posts, which included referring to Native Americans as “Redskins” who are always looking to make a buck, stating that Japanese women will sleep with American men for a new purse, and stating that women are “genetically flawed” and “poorly designed creatures who do not want to have sex nearly as often as needed for the human race to get along peaceably and fruitfully.”

Speaking to The Wrap, Uygur confirmed that the posts were in fact his, and stated that he regrets writing them.

“The stuff I wrote back then was really insensitive and ignorant,” Uygur said. “If you read that today, what I wrote 18 years ago, and you’re offended by it, you’re 100 percent right. And anyone who is subjected to that material, I apologize to. And I deeply regret having written that stuff when I was a different guy.”

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Uygur then went the Kevin Spacey route with his apology — stating that he is now living as a liberal man — and blamed his disgusting statements on being a conservative at the time.

“If someone said that today, I would heavily criticize them on the show and rightfully so, and I have. I’ve criticized myself over the years,” he added. “I had not yet matured and I was still a conservative who thought that stuff was politically incorrect and edgy. When you read it now, it looks really, honestly, ugly. And it’s very uncomfortable to read.”

The popular YouTube personality denied the incident written about by Young Turks co-founder and senior vice president of operations Dave Koller in 2005, in which he describes himself and Uygur asking 14-16 year old girls if they have ever had sex –referring to them as “whores in training” and “little spoiled brat bitch young American girls on their way to becoming abused porn actresses or dispensable property in a New York City prostitution ring.” He did confirm that the trip took place.

“[Koller] wrote in a way that was over-the-top satire and that doesn’t look good,” said Uygur. “Some of the stuff he did in there we didn’t do … We did not proposition any underage women.”

When the Wrap called Koller for comment, he declined.

“I don’t want to talk about any of that stuff. Thank you for calling,” he said before hanging up on the reporter.

The Wrap also spoke to a former employee on the condition of anonymity who asserted that Uygur’s claims that he has changed are false.

“Cenk is just a knucklehead. He’s a boy. He talks about women the way I talked when I was 13,” he said. “He’s obsessed with body count. Basically how many people you f–cked. This is an important number to him.”

It is also important to note that several of the statements cataloged by The Gateway Pundit in our expose were after his shift to the left.

In one clip from 2015, Uygur also shockingly stated that if the student raped by their teacher was his son or daughter and the teacher was attractive, he would not want them to go to jail. “At 16 you’re perfectly capable,” he says. He added that his “internal rule” is that 16 year olds are adults. The video was deleted from the Young Turks channel following the publication of our initial report.