(CNN) American conservative commentator Ben Shapiro has admitted he was "destroyed" in a TV interview this week with British journalist Andrew Neil after being widely mocked for storming out of the debate and telling Neil: "I'm popular, and no one has ever heard of you."

Shapiro complained repeatedly throughout the interview, on the BBC's "Politics Live" program, as the longtime broadcaster and former newspaper editor pressed him on some of his previous comments.

"This is a giant waste of time, in the sense that the entire interview is designed for you to shout slogans or old things that I've said at me," he told Neil.

"I'm not inclined to continue an interview with a person as badly motivated as you," he said, cutting the interview short despite earlier telling Neil he had "reached out to so many people across the aisle to have conversations with them."

The commentator took part in the interview to promote a new book, but the conversation turned tense when Neil quizzed Shapiro on his support of a controversial new abortion law in the state of Georgia