It Is Never Too Late to Speak Out

"Last month, Tucker Carlson, the host of one of the country's most popular podcasts, interviewed Nick Fuentes, a white-nationalist influencer, for more than two hours. The two men got along famously, and it was little wonder why. Carlson has become a fierce and obsessive critic of Israel; he has interviewed a Holocaust revisionist and said that "Christian Zionists" have "been seized by this brain virus.""

"So in the aftermath of the Carlson-Fuentes conversation, Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, put out a video defending Carlson, a "close friend" of the institution, against the "venomous coalition attacking him." Heritage's proper role, according to Roberts, is to "focus on our political adversaries on the left, not attacking our friends on the right." Roberts said he may disagree with, and even abhor, some of what Fuentes has said, but he made clear that "canceling him is not the answer, either.""

"What Roberts didn't anticipate is the backlash he received, from both within and outside Heritage. "An old political poison is growing on the new right, led by podcasters and internet opportunists who are preoccupied with the Jews," the conservative editorial board of The Wall Street Journal wrote. "It is spreading wider and faster than we thought, and it has even found an apologist in Kevin Roberts, president of the venerable Heritage Foundation.""

Tucker Carlson interviewed Nick Fuentes, a white-nationalist influencer, for over two hours and expressed fierce criticism of Israel while engaging with Holocaust revisionist views. Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, posted a video defending Carlson as a "close friend," urged focusing on left-wing adversaries, and argued that canceling Fuentes was not the solution. The defense triggered backlash inside and outside Heritage, including a Wall Street Journal editorial decrying a growing political poison on the new right. Roberts later apologized for his response but has not criticized Carlson. Heritage is depicted as a site to study the American right's moral decline.

Read at The Atlantic