Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts made a video that demonstrates how partisanship has trumped principle, and in this video he has done more to damage the conservative movement than anyone else.
I'll have more to say on this in the coming days, but today I want to be clear about one thing. Christians can critique the state of Israel without being anti-Semitic. Of course, anti-Semitism should be condemned. My loyalty as a Christian is to Christ first and to America always. When it serves the interest of the United States to cooperate with other allies, we do so with partnerships on security, intelligence, technology. But when it doesn't, conservatives should feel no obligation to reflexively support any foreign government, no matter how loud the pressure becomes from the globalist class or their mouthpieces in Washington. The Heritage Foundation didn't become the intellectual backbone of the conservative movement by canceling our own people or policing the consciences of Christians, and we won't start doing that now.We don't take direction from comments on X, though we are grateful for the robust free speech debate. We also don't take direction from members or donors, though we are inherently grateful for their support, and we're adding more every day. This is the robust debate we invite with our colleagues, movement friends, our members, and the American public. We will always defend truth. We will always defend America. And we'll 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. Most importantly, the American people expect us to be focusing on our political adversaries on the left, not attacking our friends on the right.I disagree with, and even abhor things that Nick Fuentes says. But canceling him is not the answer either. When we disagree with a person's thoughts and opinions, we challenge those ideas and debate. In debate, and we have seen success in this approach as we continue to dismantle the vile ideas of the left. As my friend Vice President Vance said last night, what I am not okay with is any country coming before the interest of American citizens. And it is important for all of us, assuming we are American citizens, to put the interests of our own country first. That's where our allegiance lies. And that's where it will stay.
WTF? Platforming Nazis is now a principled position?
Yes, neo-Nazis must be canceled. That is not even a question. To pretend that they are entitled to be platformed as legitimate is exactly the same argument that the "progressive Left" uses to justify calls to murder Jews and to praise Hamas - speech that the Heritage Foundation is very much against.
In the early days of the conservative National Review, its founder William F. Buckley Jr. banned antisemites from writing in its pages. It wasn't canceling. It wasn't censorship. It was a principled stand against hate.
It is most troubling that the head of the Heritage Foundation is against that stand.
This video is problematic on other levels too. No one argues that the US should do what is best for America. But Roberts is implying that he knows what that is - and that Israel is sometimes or often on the wrong side. That is a valid opinion, it is not fact. The pro-Israel camp is not arguing for the US to go against its best interests, but that wholehearted, public support for Israel is exactly in America's best interests.
Worse, Roberts is implying that his position is the Christian position, marginalizing tens of millions of fervent Christian Zionists.
But the most disturbing part of the video is where Roberts says "conservatives should feel no obligation to reflexively support any foreign government, no matter how loud the pressure becomes from the globalist class or their mouthpieces in Washington." Is there any interpretation of this statement that doesn't mean "Jews" and "AIPAC"? "Globalists" are a popular euphemism for Jews in the antisemitic Right, it seems unlikely that Roberts doesn't know that.
And these same opponents, seemingly Jews, are later described as "bad actors who serve someone else's agenda" and a "venomous coalition...sowing division."
Heritage says its mission is to "formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense." There is no listed principle to elevate Nazis.
He says "When we disagree with a person's thoughts and opinions, we challenge those ideas and debate. In debate, and we have seen success in this approach as we continue to dismantle the vile ideas of the left. " Okay, that principle is good. Now, where on the Heritage site do they challenge the ideas of Nick Fuentes? Where did Tucket Carlson challenge him? I can find no criticism on the Heritage site of today's far-Right antisemites, and its criticism of right-wing antisemitism altogether is muted at best.
If their only debate is against the toxic ideas of the Left, then they are not principled. They are enabling and platforming hate.
There has been speculation that @Heritage is distancing itself from @TuckerCarlson over the past 24 hours.
— Kevin Roberts (@KevinRobertsTX) October 30, 2025
I want to put that to rest right now—here are my thoughts: pic.twitter.com/F8bcxBIqKI
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"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024) PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022) |
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