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The conservative movement is in the middle of a bruising internal fight after Tucker Carlson’s recent interview with Nick Fuentes sparked moral and political outrage, and Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts stepped into the fray with a defense that many view as tone-deaf. Conservatives rightly cheer resistance to cancel culture, but Roberts’s initial framing — and his use of the phrase “venomous coalition” — turned what could have been a principled argument about free speech into a public relations disaster.
Roberts tried to walk a tightrope by arguing that Heritage won’t “cancel” conservatives, yet his message came across as an excuse for giving a platform to a man who has openly trafficked in antisemitic and racist rhetoric. That misstep compelled immediate pushback from inside Heritage and from Republican leaders who understand the price of associating the party with extremists.
The fallout was swift and real: staff revolts, high-profile resignations from Heritage’s antisemitism task force, and public rebukes from senators and Jewish organizations alarmed at the damage done to the conservative brand. Donors and allies who have long supported Heritage’s work aren’t fanciful critics — they’re the backbone of the movement, and many are warning that this episode has cost the foundation credibility and money.
Roberts eventually apologized for his wording, saying he “made a mistake,” but the apology felt like too little, too late to many within the organization who say leadership failed to distinguish between defending free speech and amplifying a Holocaust denier. An apology that doesn’t plainly repudiate the normalization of hate leaves open the very ambiguity that radicals exploit to mainstream their poison.
Make no mistake: every conservative should cherish robust debate and the principle that speech should not be policed by ideological purity tests. But there is a clear difference between defending the right to speak and giving a microphone to someone who glamorizes totalitarian killers and traffics in Jew-hatred; failing to recognize that distinction is political malpractice. Republicans do not gain by normalizing figures who repel broad swaths of the electorate and alienate indispensable coalition partners.
Voices across the right have been blunt about the consequences, and even seasoned friends of the movement like Dov Hikind — who regularly appears on conservative outlets and warned on Newsmax’s programs about the damage being done — have said Roberts’s handling is “hurting” Republicans at a time when unity and moral clarity are urgent. If Heritage wants to remain the intellectual backbone of the right, it must rebuild trust with donors, partners, and the many grassroots conservatives who recoil at elitist equivocation.
Conservatives should demand better leadership: stand firm on free speech, yes, but also draw unmistakable lines against antisemitism, racism, and the forces that would burn bridges with the very voters and institutions we need to win. Heritage must repair the damage quickly, or the movement risks letting a handful of loud extremists set the agenda while principled conservatives watch from the sidelines.
