There are two paths forward for the conservative movement. One is the bravery and faithfulness of Charlie Kirk, and the other is the cowardice of Tucker Carlson, who recently promoted Nazi podcast guest Nick Fuentes.
Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts chose the latter path in a bizarre, contradictory video defending Carlson and his softball interview with Fuentes. Roberts said that “When we disagree with a person’s thoughts and opinions, we challenge those ideas in debate,” and that Heritage invites “robust debate.” But he then said that people criticizing Fuentes and Carlson are “bad actors who serve someone else’s agenda” and part of a “venomous coalition” that is “sowing division” against “our friends.”
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Fuentes is a Nazi. He has professed his admiration of Adolf Hitler and has denied the Holocaust and the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel. Carlson brought him on his podcast for a buddy-buddy interview so that Carlson could continue his obsessive campaign against Israel, which is just about the only guiding principle Carlson has left. That is why his interview with Sen. Ted Cruz was far more combative than his interview with Fuentes.
Fuentes and Kirk were on different sides of this debate, and both men were happy to make that clear. Kirk said that he did “not align with Jew-haters” when confronted by a Fuentes-supporting student. “I’m not going to put up with Jew-hatred in the conservative movement. I’m not going to put up with that in any way, shape, or form.”
Here is Fuentes’s view of Kirk: “Charlie Kirk in the grand scheme of things is just some retarded idiot.” He repeatedly called Kirk a “b****” and a fake Christian, and said he hates America. Carlson brought Fuentes on his podcast and professed how much he hates “Christian Zionists” and Christians who support Israel, a category that includes Kirk.
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Carlson has chosen his side, as Fuentes isn’t even the first Nazi or Nazi-sympathizing guest he has brought on his podcast. Roberts here is also choosing a side, calling for a debate while shielding Carlson and his Nazi guests from criticism and painting everyone who makes those criticisms as “venomous.” Read back Fuentes’s quotes about Kirk, and ask yourself which side of this debate is actually “sowing division.”
If Roberts wants Heritage to be “friends” with Fuentes and Carlson, that is his decision. But it must be made clear that it is a rejection of Kirk and the America he fought for, because Fuentes’s views and Kirk’s views are entirely incompatible. Fuentes explicitly rejects Kirk’s America. Carlson rejects it through his choice to ally with Fuentes and like-minded antisemites. Turning Point USA should take note of that as well.
