CPAC Drops Milo Yiannopoulos After Controversial Videos
QUEST: I'm Richard Quest there's more QUEST MEANS BUSINESS in just a moment. When a British journalist gets disinvited from a conservative conference after some extremely controversial comments. And the chief executive of Norwegian, the airline tells me the $100 trans- Atlantic is no longer a pipe dream. Actually, we talk about $99. Those of us who are old enough to remember the days of that sort of price on a ticket. Before that, this is CNN and here, this is where the news comes first. In the last couple of hours, President Trump has named a new national security adviser. He is Lieutenant General H. R. McMaster who will replace Michael Flynn who stepped down amid controversy over his communications with the Russian ambassador to the United States. President Trump also announced General Keith Kellogg will be the national security council chief of staff. Mike Pence, U.S. Vice President is pushing Europe to spend more on NATO. He met with the secretary general of NATO in Brussels yesterday and both gentlemen agreed to agree on spending targets. They tried to convey Washington's commitment to NATO. Condolences are being received after the sudden death of Russian's long-time ambassador to the United Nations. Vitaly Churkin died in New York reportedly from a heart attack just a day away from his 65th birthday. He represented Russia on the security council during a time of great tensions between Moscow and the West. President Trump is doubling down now blaming the media for a comment he made about Sweden suggesting there was a terror incident on Monday he tweeted, "Give the public a break. The fake news media is trying to say that large-scale immigration in Sweden is working out just beautifully. Not." They responded saying they're working to send out an accurate, fair image of the country. Footage from Japan's Fuji TV seems to show the moment before Kim Jong Un's half-brother died. Now you can see a woman approaching Kim Jung Nam at the airport apparently reaching over his head, then walking away. Another video shows Kim asking for help, het died on the way to the hospital. The alt-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos is no longer welcome, one of America's biggest conservative conferences. CPAC rescinded the invitation after video clips emerged appearing to show him making sympathetic comments about pedophilia. Suzanne Malveaux is in Washington. Please, Ms. Malveaux, dissect this one for me.</s>SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Richard. Well you know the Conservative Political Action Conference or CPAC they proclaim this gathering was going to be revolution. Well, the first revolt has come from the conservatives as well as Democrats alike over that controversial proposed speaker you were talking about known as Milo, he is the professional provocateur and also the senior editor for Breitbart. This is the important part. This is the ultra-right website that traffics in nationalists and sometimes white supremacist ideology. So, Milos belief is that he should be able to say anything in the name of free speech and what he said was revealed after this conservative website, The Reagan Battalion published two videos this week. One from a podcast clip that highlighted a discussion about what he had sex with minors in which he said quote here, "in the homosexual world particularly some of those relationships between younger boys and older men, the sort of coming of age relationships and when those older men have helped those young boys to discover who they are. And then he went on to thank the priest who molested him as a teen saying he would never be as good as a certain sex act without this priest." So, there are many prominent conservative pundits who really were the loudest opposition voices. Bill Crystal at the editor at large of the Weekly Standard he said this invitation was despicable. You had Ned Ryan, he's a board member for ACU, also objecting to this decision saying on Monday morning that members of the board they're not even consulted on this decision, tweeting while I'm all for free speech there's such a thing as vile, hateful speech what that does not deserve a platform. So, later Milo took Facebook clarifying his comments. Posting in part here, "a note for idiots, I do not support pedophilia period. I'm completely disgusted by the abuse of children." He said he was guilty of imprecise language, gallows humor. Well, CPAC chairman Matt Schlapp, he posted this statement to Twitter calling the Facebook apology insufficient writing there is no disagreement among our attendees on the evils of sexual abuse of children. This is not the first time that he has gotten the hook, so to speak. He was thrown off of Twitter for attacks on an African- American comedian Leslie Jones likening her to an ape. Calling feminism, a cancer and targeting Muslims, all of this in his routines. There were protests as well that erupted during his campus tour forcing some cancellations and also, we heard from Jonah Goldberg he's the senior at the conservative National Review, he lamented here saying apparently, the racism and anti-Semitism wasn't a deal breaker, Richard.</s>QUEST: Suzanne, very well. I ask you to dissect this and you thankfully did for us and gracefully with distasteful issues to deal it. Thank you very much indeed.</s>MALVEAUX: All right. Thank you, Richard.</s>QUEST: I'm not sure where one goes after that. Uber maybe, is in the spotlight after a former employee claims she was a victim of repeated sexual harassment. We'll have that for you after the break.