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Getty Breitbart editor-in-chief calls Yiannopoulos comments 'indefensible,' but mounts a defense

Breitbart’s editor-in-chief, Alex Marlow, called Milo Yiannopoulos' comments about pedophilia “indefensible,” “troubling” and “upsetting” on the company’s daily radio show Tuesday morning. But Marlow also defended the Breitbart senior editor, columnist and overall provocateur as a victim of a coordinated attack whose “appalling” words needed to be understood in the context of Yiannopoulos’ personal history.

"It was something that was a total surprise to people in the Breitbart organization that there is video that surfaced that appeared to show him justifying sex between an adult and a minor, at least in certain circumstances which was very troubling and upsetting,” Marlow said on the radio show. "He seemed to be speaking from personal experience as a gay man; he also revealed he’s a victim of child abuse himself. He himself told me he’s never had inappropriate contact with a minor since he was an adult. … it’s all very upsetting and something we take very seriously at Breitbart. We’ve been going through things and trying to figure out the best way to handle this, but the bottom line is the comments on the video are not defensible, and I think most people [agree] with that.”

It’s not clear what Yiannopoulos' future with Breitbart will look like. While Marlow condemned Yiannopoulos' comments about pedophilia, he said the left has done much worse.

Internally at Breitbart, tensions are high. The site, which became a champion of President Donald Trump during the campaign, now has its former chairman Steve Bannon as Trump's chief strategist in the White House. Some Breitbart staffers, speaking on the condition of anonymity, say they are incredulous at the site’s silence to its own employees about how they’re handling the Milo situation. There’s no indication, aside from Marlow’s public comments, that employees have been addressed directly. Several have expressed a willingness to leave the site should the company not part ways with Yiannopoulos. (Washingtonian reported about six have said they will walkout).

Marlow said answers will come later on Tuesday when Yiannopoulos holds a news conference in New York City to discuss his future with Breitbart. The news conference is being organized by a public relations company different from the one Brietbart uses.

While Marlow called out Yiannopoulos' comments as “troubling,” he emphasized the “context’ In which the comments were made, including Yiannopoulos' own history and that Yiannopoulos’ comments were “merely words” compared to what those on “the left” have done, mentioning people like actress Lena Dunham and filmmaker Roman Polanski.

"We have many examples on the left who have admitted to statutory rape; Lena Dunham had in her book touching her sister’s private parts as a child; you have Roman Polanski; you have millions of examples of the left of normalizing behavior, similar to what Milo described,” Marlow said. "There’s no evidence Milo has been a predator, and so I do think that is also very important context.”

Marlow also suggested the video reemerging was part of a “coordinated hit.” The video, filmed in the summer of 2016, was resurfaced over the weekend by the blog and Twitter account “The Reagan Battalion.”

"More important context which is very unfortunately, is this does look like a coordinated hit. The problem is the video is a real video with horrible things on it. But it still is unfortunate that it does look like the forces on the left, and some of the Republican establishment and the never-Trump movement perhaps,” Marlow said. “There seems to be growing evidence this was all coordinated to wait for a peak moment when Milo was red hot, coming off his Bill Maher appearance [on HBO], and they sat on this story and hold it for maximum political damage, which is really sort of sickening, which they would keep this from the public if they had it until they tried to wait until they could do the most damage to his career and to Breitbart … so it is a political war out there, but the bottom line is the video speaks for itself and it says something very terrible."

Technically, Yiannopoulos' role with Breitbart is as technology editor. But functionally, Yiannopoulos isn't working as a typical editor might. While he suggests stories, multiple sources have said Yiannopoulos is mostly a columnist. Losing him, Breitbart sources say, wouldn't affect how the site runs day to day. But Yiannopoulos is an important figure in Breitbart’s brand and image.

Notably, Breitbart’s website has not written one thing about Yiannopoulos this weekend. The site has stood by Yiannopoulos before — proudly and loudly. When Twitter banned Yiannopoulos for his remarks about the actress Leslie Jones, the site ran multiple stores about the incident. But thus far there is nothing on the site about his lost book deal or CPAC speaking slot.

The decision about Yiannopoulos will come down to the site's leadership, which includes Marlow and CEO Larry Solov.

Hadas Gold is a reporter at Politico.