Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts is facing a storm of criticism from conservatives after publicly defending Tucker Carlson’s friendly interview with avowed racist and antisemite Nick Fuentes.
In a video posted Thursday on X, Roberts praised Carlson as “a courageous truth-teller” and “a friend of Heritage,” while dismissing the uproar over Carlson’s decision to give Fuentes a platform.
“The American people expect us to be focusing on our political adversaries on the left, not attacking our friends on the right,” Roberts said. “I disagree with, and even abhor, things that Nick Fuentes says, but canceling him is not the answer either.”
Carlson sat down with Fuentes for a show posted Monday. Carlson largely refrained from challenging Fuentes and referred to some GOP supporters of Israel as “Christian Zionists” who have been “seized by this brain virus.”
“I condemn in the strongest possible terms Tucker Carlson’s growing and inexplicable antisemitism and hatred of Israel,” Newsmax contributor Fred Fleitz, a vice chair of the America First Policy Institute, wrote Friday on X. “I also condemn Carlson’s deplorable decision to have notorious antisemite and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes on his show.”
Roberts framed his defense of Carlson as a stand against what he called a “venomous coalition” attacking Carlson and “sowing division.” He added that Heritage invites “robust debate with our colleagues, our movement friends, our members and the American public.”
Roberts’ comments prompted an immediate backlash from within the conservative movement and the Jewish community.
— Matt Brooks, CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition, said he was “appalled, offended and disgusted” by the Heritage Foundation’s decision to defend Carlson.
“This isn’t about free speech,” Brooks said. “It’s about mainstreaming antisemitism and giving legitimacy to white-supremacist ideology.”
— Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called the remarks “a moral failure” and warned that conservative leaders must “confront antisemitism head-on or risk losing credibility with the American people.”
— Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., described Roberts’ video as “deeply disturbing — an embrace of antisemitism and white-supremacist conspiracy theories.”
— Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel and former Arkansas governor, also distanced himself, saying the Fuentes interview was “neither conservative nor Christian,” while cautioning against conflating legitimate debate over U.S.-Israel policy with “hate in disguise.”
Amid the mounting criticism, Roberts appeared to partially walk back his initial comments.
He posted a lengthy statement Friday on X that read in part:
“Racism and antisemitism are not relics of the past. They have blossomed on the Left on university campuses and grown on the Right through figures like Fuentes. Nick Fuentes’ antisemitism is not complicated, ironic, or misunderstood. It is explicit, dangerous, and demands our unified opposition as conservatives. Fuentes knows exactly what he is doing. He is fomenting Jew hatred, and his incitements are not only immoral and un-Christian, they risk violence.”
Newsmax reached out to the Heritage Foundation for further comment on Roberts’ initial post, including why he did not criticize Carlson for giving Fuentes such a platform.
Roberts’ willingness to back Carlson reflects Heritage’s evolving identity under his leadership. Since taking over in 2021, he has pushed the institution toward a more populist, culture-war posture.
His latest defense of Carlson underscores that shift, signaling a new readiness to stand by controversial voices even at the cost of mainstream acceptance.
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