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.
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?