Tucker Carlson’s interview with far-right antisemite Nick Fuentes divides conservatives | Tucker Carlson

Conservatives are fighting among themselves over far-right commentator Tucker Carlson’s decision to interview anti-Semitic white supremacist Nick Fuentes on his podcast, where he denounces conservatives who support Israel.

Kevin Roberts, president of the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank, defended Carlson after the episode, saying Carlson “remains and, as I’ve said before, will always be a close friend of the Heritage Foundation.”

The response from the right’s leading think tank – the group behind Project 2025, the conservative manifesto that guides the Trump administration – has angered some of its supporters and deepened the divide on the right over support for Israel and antisemitism.

In the podcast, Carlson told Republicans, including Sen. Ted Cruz, former president George W. Bush and Israeli ambassador Mike Huckabee, that they were “Christian Zionists” who “catch this brain virus.”

“I dislike them more than anyone else,” said Carlson, the former Fox host whose podcast moved further to the right during Trump’s second term.

Fuentes, who has been ostracized by the mainstream right for his views, including his support for Hitler and claims that Jews run the country, said in the podcast that “organized Judaism” had a huge influence and that he was a fan of Joseph Stalin.

Speaking to the Republican Jewish Coalition after the podcast aired on Thursday, Cruz said: “Now is the time for choice. Now is the time for courage… If you sit there with someone who says Adolf Hitler was very, very cold-blooded and his mission was to fight and defeat the ‘global Jewry’ and you don’t say anything, then you are a coward and complicit in this evil.”

Cruz also stated that he has seen more antisemitism on the right in the last six months than he has seen in his entire life, claiming that it is a “poison” and that the party and the country “face an existential crisis.”

In the news in the past weeks, it was revealed that a group chat of young Republicans took place. including A series of antisemitic comments and texts surfaced after a Trump candidate withdrew. in question There was a “Nazi line”.

Fuentes took his views further in the video he published after the podcast. “Do us all a favor,” he said. “We are done with the Jewish oligarchy. We are done with slavish submission to Israel, wars, foreign aid, police against anti-Semitism, Holocaust religion and propaganda.”

in it video In response to the podcast and speculation that the Heritage Foundation would distance itself from Carlson, Roberts said Christians can criticize Israel without being anti-Semitic and that conservatives need not “reflexively support any foreign government, no matter how high the pressure is from the globalist class or their spokespeople in Washington.” He condemned any attempt to cancel or silence Carlson and Fuentes, calling those speaking out against Carlson a “toxic coalition.”

“The American people expect us to focus on our political opponents on the left rather than attacking our friends on the right,” Roberts said. “I don’t agree with what Nick Fuentes said, I even loathe it, but canceling him is not the solution. When we disagree with a person’s thoughts and views, we question those ideas by discussing them.”

In his response to X, Fuentes thanked Roberts for the video and cited his “courage to defend open discourse and defend Tucker against the Israel First Woke Right.”

The Heritage Foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Matt Brooks, CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition, told Jewish Insider that he was “appalled, offended and disgusted” by Roberts and the Heritage Foundation’s decision to side with Carlson.

Chuck Schumer, the Democratic minority leader in the US Senate, called on those aligned with the Heritage Foundation to “reject this dangerous mainstreaming of these hateful ideologies.”

Conservative media called on Carlson to give Fuentes a wider audience and not challenge his views in the interview. The Washington Free Beacon summed up Roberts’ comment in its headline: “Heritage Foundation President: ‘Don’t Cancel Nick Fuentes,’ Just Like Stalin Fan Fuentes Told Jews ‘Take the F’ Out of America’.”

National Review’s Jim Geraghty wrote: “Really, Kevin Roberts? You think this idiot is someone serious thinkers of the modern right should spend a lot of time with? You see no problem in directing the spotlight to this guy and giving him more than two hours to spew his nonsense without holding back?”