Heritage Backlash Over Defense of Fuentes Interview

Tucker Carlson posted a largely unchallenging interview with avowed white nationalist Nick Fuentes, who has expressed Holocaust denial and praised Stalin, prompting alarm across the political spectrum. Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts publicly defended Carlson and argued that “canceling” Fuentes is not the solution, urging engagement with far‑right voices. Roberts’s stance provoked a staff rebellion inside Heritage and sharp rebukes from conservative and Jewish leaders, including Senators Mitch McConnell and Ted Cruz, who warned that platforming Fuentes mainstreams antisemitism and white‑supremacist ideas. The dispute deepened fissures within the GOP and among Project 2025 allies over whether to confront or isolate extremist rhetoric. Roberts later issued a follow‑up condemning Fuentes’s views while reiterating his call to challenge such ideas rather than cancel them, but criticism has persisted.