Heritage Foundation Defends Tucker Carlson Over His Interview With Holocaust Denier

Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts made it crystal clear Thursday that his rightwing think tank is not distancing itself from Tucker Carlson over his hourslong interview with white supremacist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes.

In a sit-down video to address the “speculation” he’s been seeing, Roberts affirmed that the ousted Fox News host “always will be a close friend of the Heritage Foundation” and denounced right-wing criticism of Carlson platforming Fuentes as the work of a “venomous coalition” trying to “cancel” him.

“The American people expect us to be focusing on our political adversaries on the left, not attacking our friends on the right,” Roberts said.

As for Fuentes, Roberts said: “I disagree with and even abhor things that Nick Fuentes says, but canceling him is not the answer either.”

Fuentes, a far-right activist who once called for “a total Aryan victory” and has repeatedly praised Adolf Hitler, responded on social media, thanking Roberts for his “courage in standing up for open discourse and defending Tucker against the Israel First Woke Right.”

Carlson allowed Fuentes to speak largely unchecked in their interview this week, letting him spout off comments about the problems with “organized Jewry in America,” and declaring himself a longtime “fan” and “admirer” of Joseph Stalin with minimal pushback.

“We’ll circle back to that,” Carlson said regarding the Stalin comment. He never did.

Amid the fallout, some noted on social media that the Heritage Foundation had removed a reference to Carlson on its website. An archived version of the webpage in question, which includes “Tucker” in the URL, shows that it did once feature a fundraising appeal to Carlson’s “dedicated” listeners and featured a quote from him.

Roberts didn’t address that change in his video but said the Heritage Foundation would not take any guidance from social media critics.

“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, but we are inherently grateful for their support, and we’re adding more every day,” he said.