this is "nightline." >> tonight, provoking protests. controversial breitbart editor milo yiannopoulos whose radical views sparked fiery outrage on the campus of uc berkeley. >> they're so threatened that the idea of a conservative speaker might be persuasive and interested and funny. >> peaceful protests hijacked by over a hundred armed agitators, setting tires, smashing windows, clashing with police. we pull back the curtain on the infamous provocateur. plus, former nfl star josh brown, exposed for years of abusive and threatening behavior towards his wife. >> i would say the cops have been called a little over ten times. >> when his private journals were made public, cut by his team.

but now he says he's a new man. should the league give him one more chance? ♪ >> and how do you create the perfect illusion? a sneak peek at the stage for lady's super bowl half-time show. and is there a hidden message about a special guest performer in this instagram post? but first the "nightline" 5. >> number one in just 60 seconds. >> number one in just 60

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♪ ♪ good evening. thanks for joining us. he is the far-right provocateur, whose scheduled appearance sparked proflts on the uc berkeley campus. milo yiannopoulos has called feminism a cancer and routinely mocks liberals for being ugly and was banned from twitter. who is he and why does she provoke such strong reactions? >> reporter: the university of california berkeley, erupting in flames last night. >> shut it down! >> reporter: campus officials say it started out over a peaceful protest, over a thousand turning out because this man was scheduled to speak on campus. >> black lives matter is nothing more than the last socially

acceptable hate group. >> muslims rape everyone. >> i'm grateful for everyone for coming, but quite honestly, [ bleep ] your feelings. >> reporter: he's one of the most famous or infamous self-proclaimed trolls on the internet. he's an editor at breitbart, the conservative news website. >> i don't say anything i don't believe. but i do say things in a way that is going to elicit a response from people. >> reporter: abc's terry moran interviewed him in london last fall. >> i'm so bored of this uptight -- no. america needs more hatred. >> reporter: the berkeley event was supposed to be the last stop on his college tour. >> we will not tolerate racism or sexism, or hate crimes and violence. he's a fascist and berkeley did not welcome him. >> reporter: but it was canceled after more than a hundred people with black masks, armed with fire crackers and baseball bats, showed up, seizing an opportunity to turn the otherwise peaceful protest

violent. >> i knowledthink we have a rig say we don't want him here. >> reporter: the stand-off intensifying. at least six people were injured, including this trump supporter, who was pepper-sprayed. kiara says, as a gay conservative herself, she was there to hear milo. she expected protesters but nothing like this. >> they hit all my friends with flag poles, i had to jump over a fence. i was there to voice my opinion about free speech and watch a controversial view. i think this is like an historic moment. i feel like i'm embodying berkeley style more than anyone else there. >> reporter: milo later taking to facebook to respond. >> they're so threatened by the idea that a conservative speaker might take some people with him, they just have to shut it down at all costs. >> reporter: the president now threatening to cut funding if uc berkeley doesn't allow free

speech and practices violence on innocent people. no federal funds? however, experts say there's no federal law that allows the u.s. government to deny funding because it prohibited someone from speaking on campus. uc berkeley said police evacuated milo from campus for his own safety, bringing the event to an end. adding that while they have made clear, our belief that the provocations of mr. yiannopoulos were in marked opposition to the basic values of the university, we respected his right to come to campus and speak. but tonight, milo continues to fan the flames on fox news. >> berkeley gets $370 million a year. it's one of the biggest research universities, one of the highest ranked universities. but it's turning out graduates who don't do much. only 47% of their graduates go on to full time employment when they leave. that money could be repurposed

if berkeley refuses to honor its first amendment commitments. >> i don't think any serious person denies american academia is dominated by left-wing points of view. >> he's allowed to be as hateful, racist, misogynistic as he is. but good people also have their free speech to say that's not acceptable. >> reporter: the protests at berkeley just the latest flosh point in an increasingly divided country. people have been prompted to exercise their free speech rights, galvanized around issues like women's rights, environmental concerns, and immigration. >> and then you have opportunists like milo who are gleaming off, poaching off this divisiveness. >> reporter: for milo, there seems to be no limits, no holds barred for the dropout from cambridge university, a sometime poet, tech journalist, donald trump supporter, gay catholic, and entrepreneur. >> i don't entirely believe in

lesbians. >> reporter: milo said no one should be upset by his jabs. >> if i'm mean, it's normally because they're deserve it. >> america's had enough of niceness. if my rudeness provokes conversation, and 20% of people stop talking about what i was actually saying, i will consider my career to have been a terrific success. >> reporter: milo helping to legitimize a movement of negativity growing on the internet. one of his hot topics is the female physique. >> you're going to go after somebody's body to denigrate their ideas? >> absolutely. >> what grade are you? seriously? that's revolting. >> no, it's not. what's revolting is the body positivity movement. what's revolting is this idea now that you can tell women that they'll be healthy at any size. it tells women you can be fat and unattractive and you'll be happy anyway. that's a lie. >> reporter: another target, the mainstream media. >> it's no surprise i get a lot

of bad press, because my stated enemy is the press. i'm dedicated to the destruction of political correctness, and that's the language the media speaks. >> reporter: milo is not the only breitbart person making headlines. there's also steve bannon. >> suddenly breitbart, which used to be on the outside, throwing stones in, is on the inside throwing stones out. >> reporter: bannon, now trump's senior adviser in the oval office, is generating his own share of controversy. >> he's the person that is urging president trump to continue his combative and aggressive tone. go to war with the news media. bannon has a seat at the table in just about all the critical places. he's been elevated in the national security council. he's been put in charge of task forces. he's been creating his own lines of communication. >> reporter: house minority leader nancy pelosi today saying she believes america is less safe with bannon having trump's ear. >> this is a stunning thing. that a white supremacist bannon

would have a permanent seat dismissing the chairman of national intelligence as permanent members. >> reporter: bannon does not identify as a white supremacist, but has referred to himself as an economic nationalist. >> we're concerned with some of the initial executive orders and statements we've seen from the white house. we've been public about our concern about the treatment of refugees, the muslim ban, the religious test. a lot of people are very uncomfortable with the tenor of the public discussion. >> reporter: the tenor that reached a pitch last night at uc berkeley, has quieted today. a few reminders of what happened, still visible. but for now, this divided country showing fewer signs of uniting. for "nightline," i'm kayna whitworth in berkeley, california. up next, this former new york giants kicker has admitted to abusing his wife for years. why he says he deserves a second chance.

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♪ until recently, the nfl has been widely criticized for not doing enough to discipline domestic abusers within its ranks. tonight we meet one player whose infractions have not been taken lightly. josh brown lost his spot on the new york giants when his private journals that included missions of domestic abuse went public. now he's crying foul, and he says he's a new man. here's abc's paula faris. >> reporter: josh brown at the pinnacle of his professional career, starting kicker for the nfl's new york giants.

>> josh brown connects. >> reporter: he had just signed a $4 million contract and then it all came crashing down for the 14-year veteran. >> 911, what are you reporting? >> my husband is really upset right now. >> the world now thinks that i beat my wife. and i have never hit this woman. i never hit her. not once. >> reporter: it was may 22nd, 2015, when josh brown was arrested and booked for assault against his wife molly. >> reporter: the deputy said husband grabbed wife's wrist during an argument, causing her pain, bruising, and a small abrasion. husband was arrested and booked for assault and he said, quote, i believe that josh assaulted molly. >> that's what he said. >> do you feel you assaulted her? >> no i did not. >> reporter: today for the first time, brown talking about the volatile relationship he shared with his now ex-wife molly. >> reporter: so you have physically abused your wife? >> yeah, i have.

>> reporter: for years, all happening behind closed doors. you say that you verbally abused her. how so? >> screaming, yelling, calling names, threatening. >> reporter: the vivid details of their tumultuous relationship came to light last october. more than a hundred pages of documents were released, detailing allegations and seeming admissions of physical, verbal, and emotional abuse. including highly confidential journals brown had written years ago. >> these were the things that you say to yourself and then you burn them. >> reporter: he says molly turned those private journals over to the washington state king county sheriff's investigators in 2016, years after they were written. part of the department's investigation into his 2015 arrest. >> they were for me to be able to process what i was learning, what i was coming to terms with. and then have a path for healing. >> reporter: it was in these prescribed journals he

confronted his own demons. his past addictions to pornography and alcohol, and a traumatic time in his childhood. you also write in your journals that you were sexually abused as a child? >> yeah. >> how old were you? >> i was 6. it was a neighborhood teenage kid. happened for about a year. not something you told anybody about. >> reporter: and last fall, just days after the journals made public by the sheriff's office, he was cut from the giants, and he's been out of a job since. >> reporter: what did the new york giants know about your situation? >> they knew that i had been arrested may 22nd, 2015. >> reporter: well, that was his only arrest during their marriage. molly alleges there were other incidents. she claims you were physically violent on more than 20 occasions. do you dispute that? >> i dispute it. i absolutely dispute it. i don't know where that number even comes from. the cops have been called a little over ten times.

>> reporter: despite her claims, brown has never been charged, but many around them believe their relationship was toxic. were you ever abused by molly? or is that something you don't want to get into? >> i just don't know if i want to go down that road, because that's not the message i want. >> reporter: brown has said he's been fully cooperative with the nfl. >> the league has known everything. >> everything? >> everything. >> even the journals? >> they knew i was in counselling. i don't know if they knew the journals were out. >> are you angry at how they've handled everything? >> the fact that my private things are being used against me. that's hard to swallow. >> talking about your journals? >> talking about my journals. i had to learn all that and write that down in order to heal and now you're telling me that i'm going to be punished for trying to correct the things in my life that needed to be changed. >> reporter: his own words, coming back to haunt him. you said, quote, i have physically, verbally and emotionally abused my wife,

molly. what do you mean by that? >> i mean, i had put my hands on her. i kicked the chair. i held her down. the holding down was the worst moment in our marriage. i never hit her. i never slapped her. i never choked her. i never did those types of things. >> when you say that you physically abused her, but you didn't hit her, how are people supposed to reconcile that, josh? >> it's -- they're not supposed to. what i did was wrong, period. domestic violence is not just physical abuse. we're talking intimidation and threats, the attempt to control. body language. >> and you take responsibility for everything you did and said during your marriage? >> i'm fully accountable. for every bit of it. >> reporter: as of tonight, molly has not responded to our requests for comment. the nfl's investigation into josh brown is open and active. investigators will be interviewing him next week.

>> until we have a final decision, we won't be making a decision about anyone's eligibility on that front. >> reporter: initially the nfl suspended brown for one game. but with that outrage provoking footage of ray rice punching his now wife, still fresh in the public's minds, any allegation of domestic violence touched a nerve. >> it's almost like a religion. with that comes both blindness, but also higher expectations. >> reporter: mary has been reporting on the nfl's handling of domestic violence. >> it's different than a lot of the disciplinary issues that i think sports leagues have dealt with in the past. so like recreational drug use, things that are a little bit more black and white. but i think domestic violence is really an issue of gray, and i think how it is handled needs to have that same kind of nuance and understanding to it. >> do you think there are players that look at your situation that are fearful of being honest because of the policy is this. >> sure. what would be the point of going to marriage counselling at this point? if you can use my private

journals as evidence that anybody can do that. >> there's no motivation to rehabilitate yourself? >> no, not if it can be used against you. >> what have you lost? >> everything. >> his divorce, finalized in december, his career possibly over, and his reputation, shattered. >> what do you have left? >> i have my daughter. that's the best thing in the world. >> reporter: his daughter georgia, whom he splits custody of with his ex-wife. when she's old enough to understand, how are you going to describe to her how you treated her mom and how you treat women? >> i'll tell her the truth. >> jimmy: >> reporter: unfiltered? >> unfiltered. because i want her to recognize that behavior in men that she chooses to date. >> would you want her to date somebody like you? >> now yes. not five years ago.

i want to play again. i want to continue to write this sto story. >> is there any room for second, third chances in the nfl? >> maybe. if it doesn't happen, i'm fine. >> reporter: i'm paula faris for "nightline." up next -- ♪ ♪ >> -- inside a perfect illusion, how lady gaga is preparing for the super bowl. ♪ ♪ abc news "nightline," brought to you by -- does psoriasis ever get in the way of a touching moment? if you have moderate to severe psoriasis, you can embrace the chance of completely clear skin with taltz. taltz is proven to give you a chance at completely clear skin. with taltz, up to 90% of patients had a significant improvement of their psoriasis plaques. in fact, 4 out of 10 even achieved completely clear skin.

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♪ and finally tonight, mother monster is being coy about her upcoming super bowl half-time performance. [ laughter ] >> reporter: gaga's playing it cool. >> i'm not gonna tell you what i'm gonna do. >> reporter: while the popstar and her team huddle up before her performance, details of her half-time extravaganza remain under wraps. will songs like "edge of glory" make the cut? ♪ ♪ >> i don't want to give away

what songs i'm singing for the half-time show, because i feel like it's going to ruin the surprise. >> reporter: gaga also keeping mum on whether she'll use the global spotlight to make a political statement. fans combing her instagram for clues. could this bee, be a hint that maybe she'll be joined by another b? >> i wouldn't read into it, no. >> reporter: thankfully, only three more did is of suspense. >> don't miss her interview with micha micha michael strahan on gma tomorrow. [crying] ahhhhhhhhhh! the price you see is the price you pay, unlike cable.

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