The fallout over the Heritage Foundation’s vocal defense of former Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson continued Monday.
In an interview with CNN “This Morning,” Laurie Cardoza-Moore, a former member of the conservative think tank’s antisemitism task force, called for its president, Kevin Roberts, to step down over his remarks and argued that the organization has lost its way.
“He is not suitable for this position any longer,” Cardoza-Moore said of Roberts. “He did not clearly articulate what is happening with Tucker Carlson with these lies. The fact that he would blow off Nick Fuentes’ interview by Tucker Carlson. Are you kidding me?”
Cardoza-Moore, the founder of a Christian Zionist organization called Proclaiming Justice to The Nations, resigned from the board of the Heritage Foundation’s National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism last week over concerns about Roberts’ defense of Carlson after he gave a sympathetic interview to white supremacist Nick Fuentes.
When asked about Cardoza-Moore’s remarks, Heritage Foundation spokesperson Cody Sargent pointed to statements that Roberts has made about combating antisemitism, including denouncing Fuentes’ “antisemitic ideology” and committing to speaking up about “the scourge of antisemitism no matter the messenger.”
In a video responding to Carlson’s interview, Roberts initially dismissed the right-wing critiques of the pundit and argued that they were part of an effort by a “venomous coalition” to “cancel” him. Following significant backlash, including from his own employees, he went on to apologize for how he handled the issue and said he had made a “mistake,” according to video obtained and published by The Washington Free Beacon.
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and conservative commentator Ben Shapiro were among other prominent figures on the right who blasted the organization’s weak initial response. As The New York Times reported, leaders of the antisemitism task force also announced plans to sever ties with the think tank and said they would continue their work outside the Heritage Foundation “for a season.”
“As prestigious as the Heritage Foundation is, I think that the Heritage Foundation has lost its mooring. It’s lost its way,” said Cardoza-Moore. “And it’s time for Kevin Roberts to go. And a new leader needs to step in that knows about American history with Israel, with the Jewish people.”
Roberts had said he’d be open to stepping down but was eager for an opportunity to clean up his mess, according to the Free Beacon report.
The uproar over Carlson’s interview with Fuentes also comes on the heels of a bombshell Politico report about young conservatives spewing racist and antisemitic sentiments in a private group chat, and adds to scrutiny of figures on the right increasingly normalizing antisemitism.
As HuffPost’s Lydia O’Connor reported, “Carlson allowed Fuentes to speak largely unchecked in their interview … 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.”
Fuentes has been long known for expressing sexist, racist and antisemitic views, including promoting Holocaust denial and his admiration for Hitler.
“It is a broader problem, but people like Tucker Carlson and the leadership at the Heritage Foundation, under Kevin Roberts, are helping to fuel this because they’re not clearly articulating what really is happening,” Cardoza-Moore said.