Controversy over Tucker Carlson interview reveals conservative movement's conflict over antisemitism

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NEW YORK (AP) — As Republicans accuse Democrats of tolerating antisemitism in their party, the GOP on Friday was roiled by its own schism after the leader of a powerful right-wing think tank defended prominent conservative commentator Tucker Carlson for his friendly podcast interview with a far-right activist known for his antisemitic views.

The comments from Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, sparked outrage from some Heritage staffers, senators and conservative activists. But they also reflect increasing skepticism toward Israel and of Jews among some on the right, complicating the GOP's efforts to cast the Democratic Party as antisemitic.

The outrage began when Roberts on Thursday posted a video in which he denied his group was “distancing itself” from the former Fox News host, one of the most powerful voices on the right, after Carlson’s podcast hosted Nick Fuentes, whose followers see themselves as working to preserve America’s white, Christian identify.

“The American people expect us to be focusing on our political adversaries on the left, not attacking our friends on the right,” said Roberts, adding that, while antisemitism is wrong, conservatives do not need to always support Israel.

The video drew sharp rebuke from Heritage staffers and multiple Republican senators, as well as top Jewish leaders in both parties.

Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish member of Congress, called the Roberts statement “deeply disturbing.” Matt Brooks, CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition, said in a statement to Jewish Insider that he was “appalled, offended and disgusted.”

The flare-up comes as criticism of Israel and blatant antisemitism have risen in right wing circles. Activists such as Fuentes and Candace Owens have seen the popularity of their podcasts and videos grow, particularly among young conservatives who are increasingly skeptical of the notion that the Republican Party should stand by Israel's side and support its war in Gaza, given President Donald Trump 's “America First” agenda.

It also comes as the Trump administration has been cracking down on colleges and universities for their alleged antisemitism amid protests over the Israel-Hamas war. Trump has long accused Democrats of hating Israel.

Critics say the administration conflates any criticism of the Israeli government's actions with prejudice.

In the amiable, 2 hour-and-12-minute interview, Carlson gently disagreed with Fuentes’ contention that Jewish people’s loyalties to the U.S. were inherently suspect. He noted that many Jews have been critical of Israel and said his Christian faith required him to judge individuals on their merits rather than identity.

But Carlson, who complimented Fuentes multiple times, also railed against “Christian Zionists,” naming people such as Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and former President George W. Bush as victims of a “brain virus.”

“I dislike them more than anybody because like what? Because it’s Christian heresy and I’m offended by that as a Christian,” he said.

Carlson has been critical of U.S. support for Israel in its war with Hamas and has come under fire for his own far-right views, including the white-supremacist theory that says whites are being “replaced” by people of color.

In a statement Friday afternoon posted on X, Roberts offered a lengthy condemnation of Fuentes’ views, saying that “the @Heritage Foundation and I denounce and stand against his vicious antisemitic ideology, his Holocaust denial, and his relentless conspiracy theories that echo the darkest chapters of history.”

The Carlson interview also drew rebuke from Cruz.

“If you sit there with someone who says Adolf Hitler was very, very cool and that their mission is to combat and defeat ‘global Jewry,’ and you say nothing, then you are a coward and you are complicit in that evil,” Cruz said Thursday at the Republican Jewish Coalition Leadership Summit in Las Vegas.

Cruz argued that, while antisemitism has been on the rise on the left, “In the last six months, I’ve seen more antisemitism on the right than I have in my entire life.”

The Fuentes interview and ensuing controversy complicate conservatives' efforts to cast the Democratic Party as turning a blind eye to antisemitism in their ranks. Trump and conservatives have repeatedly pointed to Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic state lawmaker in New York, Muslim and longtime critic of Israel who is the favorite in next week’s New York City mayoral race, as emblematic of a party they contend is abandoning Jews.

Earlier this month, Vice President JD Vance dismissed criticism of a Telegram chat among members of a New York Young Republicans group that included racist comments and flippant remarks about gas chambers.

He raised eyebrows again this week for his response to an attendee at a Turning Point USA event who asked why the U.S. was spending foreign aid on the “ethnic cleansing in Gaza” and said Judaism, as a religion, “openly supports the prosecution of ours.”

Vance responded without addressing the premise of the question and instead stressed the administration’s “America First” approach.

“Sometimes they have similar interests to the United States and we’re going to work with them in that case. Sometimes they don’t have similar interests to the United States,” Vance said of Israel.

Heritage was founded during the Nixon administration and became one of the pillars of the right's intellectual resurgence in Washington. During the Trump years, it has leaned heavily into political activism, social conservatism and a close relationship with GOP power brokers.

That culminated in Project 2025, a nearly 900-page guidebook for a new Trump term, which infuriated the then-candidate by becoming a focus for Democratic attacks on his agenda during the campaign.

Tim Chapman, a former Heritage chief of staff, is now president of Advancing American Freedom, an organization founded by former Vice President Mike Pence to defend traditional conservative values after feeling Heritage had lost its way.

“I think Heritage decided if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em, with regard to the populist right,” Chapman said in an interview.

Within the institute, Roberts' comments sparked a striking online rebellion.

Several staffers voiced their objections publicly, including researcher Preston Brashers, who posted a meme Thursday with the words “NAZIS ARE BAD,” Mediaite first reported.

On Friday he wrote that Roberts' chief of staff had asked “for my and my colleagues’ resignation,” and wrote that, “if losing my job at Heritage is the consequence of posting ‘NAZIS ARE BAD’, it’s a consequence I’m prepared to face if it comes to that.”

Roberts, in a statement, said: “We value all of our people, appreciate their service, and stand unequivocally with those denouncing antisemitism.”