The Heritage Foundation’s Kevin Roberts is walking back his defense of Tucker Carlson.

Carlson caused a major stir on the right last week when he decided to interview Nick Fuentes, a known white supremacist and Hitler fan. The interview was immediately flamed by conservative Jews, who condemned the ex–Fox News host’s decision to elevate Fuentes’s talking points.

Despite the opposition, Roberts released a video on X Thursday in support of Carlson and Fuentes, noting that while he disagreed with Fuentes’s beliefs, he did not believe that the “venomous” coalition “cancelling” the Christian nationalist Holocaust-denier had an appropriate reaction to the interview.

Since then, the Heritage Foundation has been embroiled in internal controversy, with at least one staffer exiting the institution over the mess. Roberts addressed the schism Wednesday.

“I made a mistake and I let you down and I let down this institution. Period. Full Stop,” the conservative think tank’s president told employees at an all-staff meeting, according to The Washington Free Beacon.

  • Almacca@aussie.zone
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    7 hours ago

    Isn’t Roberts the cunt that said ‘The takeover will be bloodless if the left allows it.’? (Spoiler: He was)

    • Basic Glitch@sh.itjust.worksOP
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      2 hours ago

      They didn’t have a problem with Richard Spencer or Nazi salutes in 2016.

      They didn’t have a problem with the Unite the Right rally and men with tiki torches chanting “Jews will not replace us” in 2017.

      They didn’t have a problem with Elon Musk doing 2 Nazi salutes on stage at Trump’s inauguration in 2025.

      JD Vance literally just defended 40 yead old men making jokes about gas chambers just a few weeks ago.

      We were told over and over we were just making a big deal out of nothing all those other times. I don’t really understanding why those things were no big deal, but this is somehow the red line?

  • DoctorNope@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    Question: is Tucker sanewashing Fuentes by giving him an in to mainstream media? Or is Fuentes “nazi-washing” Tucker and helping him out by giving him access to Fuentes’ audience? For a much better breakdown than I can give, Dan & Jordan at Knowledge Fight just covered this in episode 1089.

    Tucker has already debased himself, as if that were possible, by interviewing the likes of Alex Jones (who of course has had Fuentes on his show multiple times). It’s not like he’s any more guilty by direct association. Given that 30-40% of young republican DC staffers may be groypers (not exactly a scientific poll but I mean…doesn’t this comport with recent experience), is it surprising that he’s cozying up to a literal nazi in a desperate attempt to stay relevant to the next generation of republicans?

    And as Knowledge Fight (honestly pretty exhaustingly exhaustively) shows: Fuentes has been making the rounds lately. All the right-wing grifters and shitheels have had him on—they are fully on board with the sentiment. This is precisely what 4chan circa 2016 hath wrought: the old guys are still “hiding their power level” but the young republicans are out and proud nazis. This is just Tucker tapping into that base. For money.

    As bleak as all that is, I still hold on to hope that there are enough of us who have resisted the brainrot and redpill propaganda enough to see these goofy assholes for what they are. Because listening to what they have to say should be a potent vaccine against their ideas. If you’ve got even a shred of humanity left in you.

  • Manjushri@piefed.social
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    12 hours ago

    …with at least one staffer exiting the institution over the mess.

    The staffer reportedly asked, “Are we the baddies?” as he tendered his resignation.

  • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

    “I made a mistake and I let you down and I let down this institution. Period. Full Stop,” the conservative think tank’s president told employees at an all-staff meeting, according to The Washington Free Beacon.

    “…I let the mask slip off a little too quickly. We have a clear plan and I just got so excited about the suffering of the poor I thought we were already on phase 6. This is a premature failure on my part, not the organization and its mission. I’d also like to take a moment to address our Jewish members and donors…‘It was just a prank, bro’. I hope this has addressed any fears that may have been raised that we are secretly white supremacists. Please continue on with the good work of phase 4.” - Roberts probably

  • Nobody@anarchist.nexus
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    11 hours ago

    “We’re not in the full-blown Nazi phase yet. We’re trying to control the pace of the takeover. If you can’t mask until the night of the long knives, you can’t be trusted with message.

    Resign immediately or we’ll leak your Epstein tapes.”

  • MushuChupacabra@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

    Imagine being evil enough to work for the Heritage Foundation, but having to leave in disgust, on account of them being far too evil for you to tolerate.

      • rafoix@lemmy.zip
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        12 hours ago

        Each leopard is only able to see and feel their own face being eaten. That’s the beauty of the “conservative” mind.

        They could be in a room with 100 other leopards and will be surprised that their face got eaten after 95 others’ faces got eaten.

  • zd9@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    When the regime falls, Kevin Roberts will be one of them that faces real consequences.

  • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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    12 hours ago

    conservative Jews

    OMYHWH…I imagine Jews for Hitler likely also had a lot to say.

  • thanks AV@lemmy.world
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    11 hours ago

    He said it to employees?

    Reported by Washington free beacon?

    This is bullshit. I’ll believe it when he goes on a national broadcast and

    ***********************

    you didn’t need to uncensor to know what he should do