Conservative rift over anti-Semitism

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MARY REICHARD, HOST: And now, damage control at the Heritage Foundation.

A recent interview between conservative commentator Tucker Carlson and far-right provocateur Nick Fuentes stirred up divisions on the right. It’s prompted many to ask who truly speaks for conservatism these days.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Days into the social media debate, the president of America’s largest conservative think tank took a position that surprised many, and led some to resign in protest.

Washington Bureau Reporter Carolina Lumetta has the story.

CAROLINA LUMETTA: Two weeks ago, many conservatives were outraged to watch Tucker Carlson welcome Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes to his show for a friendly conversation. Instead of asking challenging questions, Carlson said that Christian Zionism, a belief that the modern state of Israel has a right to the land based on biblical promises, is a heresy. Then he called out high ranking U.S. officials for their Zionist views, which he described as a “mind disease.”

While many criticized Carlson for the interview, others came to his support, including Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts.

ROBERTS: We will always defend truth, we will always defend America, and we will always defend our friends against the slander of bad actors who serve someone else’s agenda. That includes Tucker Carlson, who remains, and as I have said before, always will be a close friend of the Heritage Foundation. The venomous coalition attacking him are sowing division. Their attempt to cancel him will fail.

That video, posted to X, sparked internal backlash, with many concerned Roberts was defending antisemitism. Two Heritage scholars have since quit the organization, and the foundation’s own National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism has left. The task force was created in 2023 to address left-wing anti-Semitism cropping up at Ivy League universities. After Roberts’ video, task force members realized the problem was also in their own house. Mark Goldfeder, CEO of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, withdrew last week.

GOLDFEDER: This is really really bad because what we are seeing is the mainstreaming of anti-Semitism from the far-right fringes

Goldfeder says right-wing anti-Semitism is nothing new. In 2022, rapper Kanye West repeated tropes that Jews control the media and the banks, and praised Adolf Hitler on the Infowars show with conservative talk show host Alex Jones. Since then, conservative podcaster Candace Owens has defended the rapper and has claimed that Jewish people support pedophilia. Goldfeder is worried that outlandish claims conservatives once rejected are now gaining traction.

GOLDFEDER: It went from Kanye to Candace to Tucker and now to Heritage and I think we need to draw a red line before it becomes mainstreamed in conservative politics that a little anti-Semitism here and there is okay or even worse.

Roberts has since apologized for his wording and clarified that he abhors the views Fuentes espouses over Jews, women, and race relations. In an all-staff town hall last week, Roberts said his chief of staff misled him into thinking that the script for the video had been approved by the organization. That chief of staff has resigned, but Roberts maintains that he will not leave.

Here’s Roberts in a message he posted to social media after video footage of the town hall leaked.

ROBERTS: Everyone has the responsibility to speak up against the scourge of anti-Semitism, no matter the messenger. Heritage and I will do so, even when my friend Tucker Carlson needs challenging.

But in the rest of that video, Roberts does not challenge Carlson for his handling of Fuentes. Roberts clarified that he is personally friends with Carlson but he also does not agree with everything the podcaster says. I asked Texas Senator Ted Cruz about the situation last week.

CRUZ: I have no interest in befriending someone who embraces Nazis and understand the debate is not about platforming Nick Fuentes. If Tucker had had him on and then cross-examined him vigorously, challenged his hateful and bigoted views, that would have been one thing. But he didn't.

Other Republican senators condemned the Carlson interview but have not said whether they’ve lost trust in the Heritage Foundation. Florida Senator Rick Scott told me that opposition to Israel is a feature of the Democratic Party, not the Republicans.

SCOTT: We don't support anti-Semitism. We don't support boycotting Israel. So I'm going to, and that's where I am, and I'm going to continue to be that way.

LUMETTA: So where do you land on the Heritage Foundation then? Do you think that...

SCOTT: I've had a good working relationship with them.

Other partners have abandoned the think tank. The National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism has now moved on from the Heritage Foundation to join the Conference of Christian Presidents for Israel, which was founded last year to address right-wing antisemitism. Co-chair Luke Moon told me that the two groups will join forces to take on Carlson and his influence in the conservative movement. Senator Cruz says that type of work is essential to the future of the coalition.

CRUZ: In the last six months I've seen more anti-Semitism on the right than at any time in my life. And I believe Republicans and conservatives have an obligation to stand up and speak out against it, or the same thing that happened to the Democrat Party can happen to ours.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Carolina Lumetta in Washington.

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