The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board issued a scathing rebuke Monday against the Heritage Foundation and its president, Kevin Roberts, accusing him of coddling antisemitism and legitimizing extremist voices on the right.
The editorial, titled “The New Right’s New Antisemites,” warns that antisemitic rhetoric is “spreading wider and faster than we thought,” propelled by right-wing influencers like Tucker Carlson and white nationalist provocateur Nick Fuentes—and, more alarmingly, abetted by figures once seen as pillars of the conservative establishment.
The Journal’s board focused its criticism on Roberts’ video last week defending Carlson after the former Fox News host invited Fuentes onto his podcast for what the paper described as a “chummy” conversation.
Fuentes, a self-professed admirer of Adolf Hitler, used the platform to denounce “organized Jewry” and “Zionist Jews” as enemies of America—rhetoric that the editorial likened to the darkest chapters of 20th-century extremism.
According to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, “Fuentes is a well-known white supremacist, anti-Semite and Holocaust denier.”
The Center quoted Fuentes denying that 6 million Jews could have been murdered during the Holocaust.
Fuentes said, “How long would it take you to make 6 million? Hmm, I don’t know, it certainly wouldn’t be five years, right? The math doesn’t seem to add up . . . “
Fuentes is also quoted as saying, “I piss on your Talmud. Jews get thef@#$k out of America.”
The Journal observed that rather than condemning the interview, Roberts accused a “venomous coalition” of trying to “cancel” Carlson and Fuentes.
“I disagree with—and even abhor—things that Nick Fuentes says,” Roberts said in his video. “But canceling him is not the answer either.”
The Wall Street Journal called this a false equivalence and a dereliction of leadership, arguing that Roberts “joined in the Jew-baiting” by reframing the outrage not as a question of antisemitism, but of “Christian freedom of conscience.”
The editorial quoted Roberts’ insistence that “Christians can critique the state of Israel without being antisemitic,” calling the remark a rhetorical “straw man” echoing left-wing defenses of anti-Israel protests.
“Most importantly,” Roberts said, “the American people expect us to focus on our political adversaries on the left, not attack our friends on the right.”
The Journal retorted that this logic—a “no enemies to the right” philosophy—would “cost Republicans elections and endanger the country.”
Fuentes and Carlson: A Meeting of Extremes
The editorial also detailed Carlson’s interactions with Fuentes, noting that the former television host agreed with Fuentes’ disdain for “Zionist Jews” and claimed to “dislike Christian Zionists more than anybody.”
Afterward, Fuentes doubled down, declaring that Jewish conservatives such as Ben Shapiro, Mark Levin, and Josh Hammer “will never be Americans” and should “get the f— out of America and go to Israel.”
“This is not a free-speech issue,” the Journal’s editors wrote. “It is a moral one.”
They compared Roberts’ defense to leftist “cancel culture” debates, warning that conservatives who refuse to denounce antisemitic rhetoric are “cowardly and complicit in evil.”
Jewish Leaders Demand Accountability
The reaction from Jewish leaders was swift.
Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), called Roberts’ remarks “a disgrace to the conservative movement” and urged the Heritage board to “act decisively to preserve its integrity.”
“Kevin Roberts’ defense of Tucker Carlson’s decision to mainstream a Hitler admirer is indefensible,” Klein said in a statement Tuesday. “It is not ‘cancel culture’ to denounce hatred. It is moral clarity.”
Within Heritage itself, the controversy has reportedly deepened existing rifts between traditional conservatives and the newer, populist alt-right faction that Roberts has sought to embrace.
The Journal reported that Ryan Neuhaus, Roberts’ chief of staff and an advocate for reaching “young men” aligned with the online right, was quietly reassigned on Friday after the uproar.
While Roberts later clarified that he “abhors” Fuentes’ antisemitism, his critics say the damage is done.
“His initial response revealed his true instincts—to excuse, not confront,” said one former Heritage fellow who spoke on background.
The fellow said Roberts is close to Carlson on a personal level and has also steered Heritage business to Carlson’s podcast.
A Reckoning for the New Right
The episode has reignited a broader debate over the current flirtation with extremist figures under the banner of anti-establishment politics.
The Wall Street Journal editorial drew a historical parallel to William F. Buckley Jr., who famously excommunicated the John Birch Society in the 1960s to keep conservatism credible.
“Builders of the conservative movement like Heritage’s Ed Feulner knew that tolerating hate would destroy it from within,” the Journal wrote. “Roberts’ failure to grasp this lesson endangers the entire conservative project.”
Several Jewish commentators echoed that warning. “This is exactly how movements lose their soul,” said conservative writer Noah Rothman. “The right’s refusal to enforce moral boundaries in its own ranks has become its Achilles’ heel.”
By week’s end, calls for Roberts’ resignation had intensified. Morton Klein, joined by several Jewish advocacy organizations, demanded that Heritage’s board remove Roberts to “restore moral credibility.”
“He has shown he cannot distinguish between debate and hate,” Klein said.
“The Heritage Foundation must choose whether it stands with America’s founding values — or with those who admire Adolf Hitler.”
As the Journal’s editorial concluded, “If conservatives and Republicans don’t call out this poison in their own ranks before it corrupts more young minds, the right and America are entering dangerous territory.”
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