Liberal HBO “Real Time” host Bill Maher is taking credit for Milo Yiannopoulos’ sudden celebrity collapse.
In an interview with the New York Times published Wednesday morning, Maher said Yiannopoulos’ detractors can thank him for the conservative provocateur’s fall.
“What I think people saw [in Yiannopoulos] was an emotionally needy Ann Coulter wannabe, trying to make a buck off of the left’s propensity for outrage,” Maher said. “And by the end of the weekend, by dinnertime Monday, he’s dropped as a speaker at [the annual Conservative Political Action Conference]. Then he’s dropped by Breitbart, and his book deal falls through. As I say, sunlight is the best disinfectant. You’re welcome.”
Yiannopoulos had appeared last Friday on Maher’s show, before online videos resurfaced showing Yiannopoulos appearing to condone sexual relationships between gay adults and minors.
The controversy led to Yiannopoulos resigning as an editor from the Breitbart News website, losing a book deal reportedly worth more than $200,000, and having a high-profile speech event canceled.
He has since apologized for the remarks and blamed the controversy on a “cynical media witch hunt.”
Maher was criticized by his some fans and by some high-profile liberals for hosting Yiannopoulos, both when the booking was announced and after the show, for what many saw as a too-soft interview of the conservative provocateur.
Asked by the Times what he thought of Yiannopoulos, Maher described him as an attention-seeker.
“He’s the little impish, bratty kid brother,” said Maher. “And the liberals are his older teenager sisters who are having a sleepover and he puts a spider in their sleeping bag so he can watch them scream.”
