When Politicon announced its 2018 lineup Wednesday, even the most casual observers noted a particularly strange booking: Milo Yiannopoulos.
The alt-right troll, who last year lost his job and his book deal after appearing to defend pedophilia in a YouTube video, was listed on the annual convention’s lineup as simply “Milo.”
But after an evening of public outcry and fellow guest speaker Cameron Esposito, a stand-up comic, withdrawing her appearance in outrage, Yiannopoulos had disappeared from the event’s website.
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Despite that, Yiannopoulos’ website on Thursday morning continued to promote his scheduled appearance at the annual confab best explained as a nightmarish Comic-Con for people interested in seeing right-wing firebrands argue with liberal cable-news pundits or Democratic lawmakers for multiple days in a row.
“MILO RETURNS TO FRONT LINES OF CULTURE WAR AT POLITICON,” Yiannopoulos’ site blared in an article claiming he “will separately host an intimate private dinner the night of his Politicon speech. Tickets are on sale for both Politicon and the private dinner on September 5.”
But confronted with the fact that his name and likeness was no longer listed on the Politicon website, Yiannopoulos told The Daily Beast in an email: “I understand they had a four-hour meeting about it yesterday, the result of which was: I’m still booked.”
Unfortunately for him, Politicon did not agree.
“No, none of that is true,” a Politicon spokesperson told The Daily Beast. “He is no longer booked for Politicon.”
The spokesperson added: “We've had a couple of changes and with two months to go to the convention, more names will be added and dropped. Anthony Scaramucci is also not attending due to a scheduling conflict.”
After the initial publishing of this story, Yiannopoulos told The Daily Beast: “This was news to us when your story came out. They just got around to telling my booking agent. Oh well!”
Politicon 2018 will take place Oct. 20-21 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Even without Yiannopoulos, the lineup still contains a bevy of white-nationalist-friendly pundits, including Fox News host Tucker Carlson, whose recent anti-immigrant screeds have almost directly mirrored the rhetoric of avowed white nationalists.
Attendees will also be treated to appearances by former Bachelor contestant Ben Higgins, reality-TV star Dr. Drew Pinsky, and actor Henry Winkler.
Correction: This article previously named Cameron Esposito as a Parkland school-shooting survivor. She is a stand-up comic. We regret the error.
