Today's News: Heritage Foundation Faces Backlash over Defense of Tucker Carlson Interview with White Nationalist Nick Fuentes
Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts initially defended Carlson, citing opposition to “cancel culture,” which triggered widespread condemnation, staff resignations, and a loss of confidence.
Photo: Nicole Hester/Ann Arbor News/AP
Overview
Date: November 6, 2025
Topic: Conservative Movement Turmoil Over White Nationalist Nick Fuentes and Heritage Foundation Leadership
Summary: A significant internal and external backlash has erupted within the conservative movement and the Heritage Foundation following former Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s friendly interview with white nationalist Nick Fuentes. Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts initially defended Carlson, citing opposition to “cancel culture,” which triggered widespread condemnation, staff resignations, and a loss of confidence in his leadership. While Roberts has since apologized for mishandling the situation and condemned Fuentes’s extremist views, he has refused to resign, highlighting a deeper ideological struggle over the inclusion of far-right figures within mainstream conservatism.
Sources
The Washington Post - Heritage staff in open revolt over leader’s defense of Tucker Carlson
The New York Times - Nick Fuentes’s Rise Puts MAGA Movement in a ‘Time of Choosing’
Key Points
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s interview with white nationalist Nick Fuentes on his podcast sparked a major controversy within the Republican Party and conservative circles.
Fuentes is widely identified as a white nationalist and Holocaust denier who espouses antisemitic, racist, and extremist views, including admiration for Joseph Stalin and calls for an exclusive “pro-white,” Christian movement.
Kevin Roberts, President of the Heritage Foundation, initially defended Carlson, framing criticisms as attacks from a “venomous coalition” or “globalist class” and opposing “cancel culture.”
Roberts’s defense led to a significant internal “revolt” at the Heritage Foundation, including resignations from members of its antisemitism task force, widespread staff disgust, and calls for his resignation.
Prominent Republican figures, including Senators Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, and Mitch McConnell, condemned Carlson for platforming Fuentes and criticized Roberts’s stance.
Roberts later apologized for his handling of the controversy, admitting he made a mistake and let down the institution, and condemned Fuentes’s views. However, he has stated he will not resign.
The incident is seen as highlighting a broader “civil war” or “time of choosing” within the conservative movement regarding the inclusion of extremist figures and ideologies.
Tensions surrounding Roberts’s leadership at Heritage are linked to his four-year tenure, including his role in Project 2025, which has been controversial and caused friction with the Trump administration.
Unique Highlights
The Washington Post: Provides a detailed account of an internal staff meeting where Roberts faced calls for resignation, and squabbles arose over Christian employees being forced to participate in Jewish rituals. It quotes staffers Amy Swearer and Rachel Greszler directly criticizing Roberts.
The article reports on an anonymous complaint against Roberts alleging angry and profane behavior, favoritism towards Catholic employees, and demeaning comments to female staff, such as saying single women without children had “no skin in the game.” It mentions Derrick Morgan’s advice to summer interns to “make yourselves marriageable” and a draft policy paper proposing an additional “half vote” in federal elections for heterosexual married couples for each of their children.
The report specifies that at least five members of Heritage’s antisemitism task force and distinguished fellow Chris DeMuth resigned. It also states Roberts reassigned his chief of staff, Ryan Neuhaus, who then left Heritage, with Roberts attributing responsibility for drafting his controversial remarks to Neuhaus.
The New York Times: Contextualizes Fuentes’s rise within “national conservatism,” defining it as embracing an American identity based on Christianity and familial ties over the nation’s founders’ ideals. It includes specific quotes from Vice President JD Vance and Senator Eric Schmitt that show similarities to Fuentes’s ideas on societal cohesion, immigration, and American identity.
The article notes the assassination of Charlie Kirk left a power vacuum on the right, which has contributed to the scramble among more extreme elements. It details Fuentes’s incendiary views on JD Vance and his family, including references to “race mixing” and mockery of their son’s Indian name, and Fuentes’s threat of a “Groyper squeeze” against Vance for the 2028 presidential nomination.
CNN: Cites specific internal chat messages among senior Heritage staff describing the situation as an “absolute shitshow” and the organization as “flailing and in damage control,” indicating deep internal frustration. It reports on a major donor threatening to withdraw over half a million dollars annually if Roberts remains president.
The article reveals Roberts’s past deleted tweets from January 6, 2021, where he criticized Donald Trump and praised Mike Pence and Chip Roy for condemning efforts to overturn the election.
It also reports that the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) withdrew from Heritage’s Project Esther on Antisemitism, demanding a public apology and retraction from Roberts.
The Guardian: Reports that Kevin Roberts claimed he “didn’t know much” about Fuentes before recording his initial video, and that his chief of staff wrote the script for that video. It includes Roberts’s public statement on X, “I’m staying. I’m all in,” regarding his refusal to resign.
The article also features a quote from longtime Heritage staffer Robert Rector recalling conservative writer William F. Buckley Jr.’s call to “expel the lunatics” from the conservative movement.
It provides specific examples from Roberts’s detailed post on X where he explained Fuentes’s extremist views, including quotes about Holocaust exaggeration and calls for the death penalty for “perfidious Jews.”
Contrasting Details
Roberts’s knowledge of Fuentes and responsibility for initial statement: The Guardian states that Kevin Roberts claimed he “didn’t know much” about Nick Fuentes before recording his initial video defending Tucker Carlson and that his chief of staff wrote the script. In contrast, The Washington Post reports that Roberts called his chief of staff, Ryan Neuhaus, a “good man” who “made a mistake” and was “largely responsible for drafting Roberts’s controversial remarks,” implying Roberts’s awareness of the content.
Roberts’s past versus present political alignment: CNN highlights Roberts’s deleted tweets from January 6, 2021, where he criticized Donald Trump and praised Mike Pence and Chip Roy for condemning efforts to overturn the election. This stands in contrast to his current defense of Tucker Carlson, a prominent Trump ally, and The Guardian’s description of Roberts moving the Heritage Foundation into a “more of a Trumpian stance.”
Trump’s stance on Fuentes: The New York Times notes that “Mr. Trump has said nothing publicly about Mr. Fuentes’s interview.” While not a direct contradiction, CNN mentions that “even Trump publicly distanced himself from some of [Project 2025’s] proposals,” which refers to a related but distinct controversy from the Fuentes interview itself, suggesting a cautious approach from Trump on certain extreme elements.
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