The meteoric rise of alt-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos ended in an Icarus-like fall this month, thanks to one short video clip from almost a year ago, posted on Twitter.
The video, in which Yiannopoulos appeared to be defending sexual relationships between teenage boys and older men on the Drunken Peasants Podcast, was publicly available to anyone on Youtube, just waiting to be found. And the fallout from its resurfacing caused Yiannopoulos to lose his speaking slot at CPAC and his six figure book deal and to resign from his job at Breitbart.
Here is the uncut 5 minute video of Milo Yiannopoulos advocating for Pederasty involving “13 Year old” and “older men.” HIS WORDS.@Mschlapp pic.twitter.com/mAgmfpuyvu
— The Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) February 20, 2017
But the story behind the video’s reappearance remains mysterious, to say the least. While literally anyone could have found the video and disseminated it, the media has latched on to a Vox story about a libertarian 16-year-old Canadian girl who supposedly dug up the tape and brought down Yiannopoulos. Since the video was on YouTube for nearly a year, a Canadian teenager is just as likely to dredge it up as anyone, but it still doesn’t seem to add up.
The girl’s mom went to Vox to tell the her story. In an interview, the girl is referred to as “Julia,” but her identity is not revealed. Mom says her daughter wanted to bring down Yiannopoulos because she thought he was derailing the conservative movement.
“Julia” apparently did not want to publicly release it herself and risk personal attacks, so she went through an intermediary, an online site called The Reagan Battalion.
Why The Reagan Battalion? Barely anyone had even heard of the anonymous group before the Yiannopoulos video. The site is barely filled, only a splashy homepage and two blog posts from January. Its social media presence is relatively small.
How would a Canadian teenager even think to go there? Is The Reagan Battalion the go to hangout spot for Canadian teens? Am I just ignorant about Canadian youth culture?
Heat Street reached out to The Reagan Battalion asking if they could confirm that a Canadian teenager was the one who tipped them off about the video. They did not respond.
The group is run by four anonymous conservatives and they actually said in interviews that an account with less than 15 followers (not “Julia”) tipped them off to the video. Many suspect the group has ties to former independent conservative presidential candidate Evan McMullin, but The Reagan Battalion denies any such relationship.
The Reagan Battalion getting the video doesn’t imply some kind of conspiracy. But why would a Canadian teen 1) know about the group and 2) think they are the right people to spread the video? Milo Yiannopoulos is a strong supporter of Donald Trump and a bridge between Trump and an influential strain of young alt-right types and libertarians. If it’s indeed true that The Reagan Battalion is secretly run by a group of resolutely anti-Trump conservatives, the attack on Yiannopoulos seems less like a revelation from a teenage girl and more like a traditional, anonymous political hit job.
Something smells fishy.