Overview
- Tucker Carlson hosted Nick Fuentes this week in a friendly podcast interview that critics said failed to challenge Fuentes’s antisemitic statements and past Holocaust denial.
- Heritage president Kevin Roberts released a video rejecting calls to distance the think tank from Carlson, labeling critics a “venomous coalition” and arguing that “canceling” Fuentes is not the answer.
- Sen. Ted Cruz told an audience at the Republican Jewish Coalition summit that praising Hitler or railing against “global Jewry” without rebuttal is complicity, while Sen. Mitch McConnell warned the movement’s backbone is only as strong as its values.
- Several Heritage staffers publicly dissented, sharing posts such as “Nazis are bad,” and other conservatives and institutions, including Advancing American Freedom, criticized engaging Fuentes as legitimate debate.
- After the uproar, Roberts issued a clarification explicitly denouncing Fuentes’s antisemitism even as he maintained opposition to “cancellation,” while some MAGA-aligned figures like Steve Bannon defended Roberts and the RJC signaled a reassessment of ties with Heritage.