After Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts delivered a controversial statement, something resembling a civil war broke out among conservatives.
Some, siding with Roberts, felt he was right to assert that Christians should be able to critique Israel without being accused of, that Carlson should be free to interview controversial figures without being attacked for doing so, and that Roberts’s denunciation of Fuentes was sufficient.
Others, however, argued that the Heritage Foundation’s refusal to condemn Carlson more strongly for giving what some have called a “softball” interview to a right-wing activist represented a moral failing, that his statement on American-Representatives of both these camps have spent the past few days arguing their positions on social media and even within the Heritage Foundation. “I think what we are seeing here in this schism is a predominantly older, southern-centered conservative establishment being forced to come to terms with a younger, geographically northern Trumpist element that they are unable to resonate with,” Ohio College Republican Federation chairman Gabe Guidarini, who has a. “A lot of old school conservative groups have tried to keep the economic austerity, foreign policy hawkishness, and compassionate conservatism in the equation by latching on to ” his views, and recommending debate instead. Roberts has since called that initial statement a “mistake,” claiming ignorance of Fuentes’s beliefs and criticizing Carlson for hosting him. Fuentes denies that six million Jewish people died in the Holocaust, pushes antisemitic conspiracy theories, and frequently jokes about rape and genocide. “The most troubling revelation is that Roberts says he didn’t really know who Nick Fuentes is,” Mandel continued. “He’s the head of a political think tank. Knowing the ideological actors in our ecosystem is the job. If you’re outsourcing that judgment to staffers handing you scripts, you’re admitting a deeper failure of leadership. The way forward is careful, deliberate accountability — own the mistake, affirm first principles, and stop elevating voices fundamentally at odds with them.” Guidarini and others on the opposing side of the debate see things differently, characterizing the attacks on Roberts as an opportunistic means for one wing of the conservative movement to score points against its rival wing rather than a genuine effort to root out antisemitism. “I don’t think many of the critics of Kevin Roberts are being honest about what this is about,” Guidarini said. “Old school conservative elements have wanted Roberts gone for a long time because of his embrace of National Conservative ideas that American voters have routinely signaled they support, and it’s the same reason why they relentlessly lobbied against JD Vance’s vice presidential selection. The Tucker interview outrage is mostly manufactured, a desperate push using a strawman with the intention of adding a few more years to the inevitably doomed reign of D.C. Reaganites.” Sen. Ted Cruz speaks during a watch party on election night, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, at the Marriott Marquis in Houston. “In the last six months, I’ve seen more antisemitism on the Right than I have in my entire life,” the senatorafter Roberts released his initial statement. “If you sit there with someone who says Adolf Hitler was very, very cool and that their mission is to combat and defeat global Jewry, and you say nothing, then you’re a coward and you are complicit in that evil.” In the telling of some, such a characterization is part of a playbook historically used to silence conservatives.and language the Left uses when it comes to attacking ‘racism,'” one academic close to the conservative movement who requested to remain anonymous, said. “They use bullying,character and malign your motives, and refuse to engage in rational arguments whichThe academic also pointed out that many of the people attempting to tone police Heritage, including Cruz, were once enemies of Trump’s movement.of Roberts’s conduct. Tiana Lowe Doescher, for example, pointed out that his tenure as president and subsequent alignment with the New Right figures has been followed by stagnant fundraising and asserted that the foundation has less input over federal staffing than it has in previous GOP administrations.host often not pushing back on Fuentes’s statements and at times agreeing with him. The interview began with Carlson and Fuentes having a conversation about the latter’s upbringing and entrance into the political scene, then progressed to discussions on Jewish influence in American politics, race, and feminism. Carlson did not push back on Fuentes after he said that he is a “fan” of Joseph Stalin, nor did he question Fuentes on his past praise of Hitler or Holocaust denial. He did, however, offer light resistance when Fuentes claimed conservative media was controlled by “Fuentes being normalized by Carlson and Carlson, in turn, retaining the backing of the Heritage Foundation, bodes ill for the health of the conservative movement, former Heritage Foundation fellow Joel Griffith told the“This isn’t about canceling anyone,” said Griffith, who now works as a senior fellow at Advancing American Freedom, an advocacy group affiliated with former Vice President. “When you’re an organization, you have a fiduciary duty to your members and to your donors to align yourself with respectable people. The concern is that you lend the credibility of your organization, the most important think tank in the world, to someone who very clearly is spreading antisemitic propaganda … When you see a mainstream organization welcoming that, it indicates to people that this is an acceptable point of view.” While he doesn’t believe Roberts himself is antisemitic, Griffith says that he unfairly criticized those on the Right who are concerned about the rise of antisemitism and felt that he danced around Carlson’s platforming of anti-American voices, such as apologists for the Russian and Iranian regimes. He also took issue with Roberts’s assertion that “globalists” were pushing support for Israel, pointing out that the majority of the world is anti-Israel and that the pro-Israel movement in America is largely funded and staffed by Americans. Mandel pointed out that “globalist” has been used as a dog whistle.Griffith has been working in conservative politics for about 12 years and, echoing the sentiment of others, says that the rise in anti-Israel views among right-wing staffers is a recent phenomenon, stating that it wasn’t “really a problem up until about three years ago.” Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, speaks at the National Religious Broadcasters convention at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center Feb. 22, 2024, in Nashville, Tennessee. One young D.C. conservative staffer, who requested anonymity, found Roberts’s statement imprudent but has been disappointed by some of the criticism it has received. They conceded that Roberts’s “response to the controversy, specifically the first video, was unnecessary and a tactical error,” but qualified that statement by claiming that the backlash has “really brought to light that many Zionists will not tolerate any criticism of Israel or reasoned debate whatsoever.”“This controversy is forcing a reckoning: Do we stand for the ideas that built the movement — free enterprise, limited government, a strong national defense, and traditional values — or do we drift toward the kind of nihilism that corrodes all of that from within?” Mandel asked. Guidarini argued that a victor in the current confrontation will have to emerge eventually and that he believes “the old establishment will have to find an off ramp” as “there is very little division in the Republican voter base, especially among young people, who almost unanimously lean towards the Buchanan-inspired underpinnings of the Trump movement.”“This will be a huge division within institutional conservative organizations and for donors,” the anonymous staffer said. “I don’t believe the grassroots will care as much, and in fact may be turned off by gratuitous accusations of antisemitism.” The anonymous academic, meanwhile, predicted that we’ll continue to see conflicts between individuals who have criticized Roberts and figures like Vance andcommentator Matt Walsh, who they say have harnessed support among young conservatives which threatens to displace more centrist Republicans.to a statement issued by Roberts on Wednesday, in which he reiterated the organization’s commitment to fighting antisemitism. “Everyone has the responsibility to speak up against the scourge of antisemitism, no matter the messenger,” Roberts said. “Heritage and I will do so, even when my friend Tucker Carlson needs challenging.”
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