The Heritage Foundation, which brought us Project 2025, is deservedly reeling from the backlash over its support for Tucker Carlson’s recent friendly interview with hatemonger Nick Fuentes.

During Carlson’s interview, Fuentes, known for his antisemitic views and unabashed advocacy of white nationalism, advocated for a “pro-white,” Christian movement, saying that “organized Jewry” undermines American cohesion. Fuentes, 27, leads a white, male, Christian movement known as “Groypers,” and has leveraged his sizable online platform to spread racist and extremist rhetoric — including a 2021 interview with Alex Jones in which he claimed that non-Christians, including Jews, have no place in Western civilization. During the Tucker-Carlson conversation, Carlson neither addressed those past remarks nor challenged Fuentes, a notorious Holocaust denier, when he asserted that Jews are not loyal Americans. The interview, which lasted more than two hours, has been seen over 20 million times.

Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, chief architect of Project 2025 and a devout Roman Catholic, initially defended Carlson for hosting Fuentes. After an immediate blowback began against Carlson for giving Fuentes a platform, Roberts charged on a social media post on Oct. 30 that a “venomous coalition” was trying to cancel Carlson and vowed: “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.”

After saying “antisemitism should be condemned,” Roberts went on to use an antisemitic dog whistle — referring to “the globalist class” — and promised that Carlson would always be a friend.

When at least five staff members of the Heritage Foundation resigned over Roberts’ social media post, Roberts walked back some of his comments. Facing calls to resign from his $800,000-a-year post, Roberts subsequently pleaded ignorance, blaming an aide, who later resigned, for writing the post.

Justice requires that this debacle should result in Roberts losing his position at the Heritage Foundation. But don’t hold your breath. Roberts kept his position even after warning last year of violence against the left: “We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.”

Fuentes targets not only Jewish people but anyone outside his narrow religious framework. In 2023, Fuentes called for the death penalty for all non-Christians: “There is an occult element at the high levels of society, and specifically among the Jews, and you know, whenever I see that stuff that just makes me want to proclaim louder and more firmly and more rigidly that it is nothing other than Jesus Christ. No, no pagan stuff, no false gods, no deities, no demons. It is Jesus Christ and we need to start saying that name.”

Fuentes went on to declare that those who “worship false gods” or “practice magic or rituals” should be executed “when we take power.” He later expanded on his vision of a theocratic America: “We need to put up a crucifix in every home, in every room, in every school and every government office to signal Christ’s reign over our country. … This is not the domain of atheists or devil worshipers or perfidious Jews. This is Christ’s country. … You must be a Christian. And you must submit to Christianity.”

Notably, Donald Trump invited Fuentes to dine with him in 2022.

Antisemitism, which is rising in America, must be condemned unequivocally, as the Freedom From Religion Foundation has consistently done. That condemnation must also extend to Nick Fuentes, his supporters, and the broader movements of white supremacy and Christian nationalism. Antisemitism is not an accident within white Christian nationalism; it is baked into an ideology that insists political power in the United States should belong only to certain white, male Christians.

“The controversy highlights a moral crisis among public figures who continue to blur the line between faith and fanaticism — and it also shows the grave danger of normalizing those who preach bigotry in the name of religion,” says Annie Laurie Gaylor, FFRF co-president.  “If mainstream conservative leaders can’t draw the line at hobnobbing with Hitler buffs, much less open calls for execution and theocracy, where do they draw the line?”

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to promoting the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters of nontheism. With 42,000 members, FFRF advocates for freethinkers’ rights across the globe. For more information, visit ffrf.org.

Photo Attributions:
Roberts: Gage Skidmore / CC 2.0
Carlson: Gage Skidmore / CC 4.0

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