Carlson’s interview with Fuentes has drawn immense backlash from conservatives, such as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), for platforming the Holocaust denier. But Roberts showed a rift in the conservative response to the interview when his initial statement called those railing against Carlson for conducting the interview a “venomous coalition.” Roberts also initially said that, though he “abhors” some of his views, Fuentes should not be canceled.
Roberts’s updated statement Friday afternoon dials in on Fuentes himself, ripping the 27-year-old Hispanic white nationalist for his “vile daily rhetoric,” saying “there is plenty to condemn.”
“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. We are disgusted by his musings about rape, women, child marriage, and abusing his potential wife,” Roberts wrote on X.
“Nick Fuentes’s antisemitism is not complicated, ironic, or misunderstood. It is explicit, dangerous, and demands our unified opposition as conservatives. Fuentes knows exactly what he is doing. He is fomenting Jew hatred, and his incitements are not only immoral and un-Christian, they risk violence,” Roberts wrote Friday.
Each of Robert’s statements noted that he would have “more to say on this in the coming days.” His initial statement brought fierce criticism from the likes of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who criticized Robert’s first video from Thursday on X.
“The ‘intellectual backbone of the conservative movement’ is only as strong as the values it defends. Last I checked, ‘conservatives should feel no obligation’ to carry water for antisemites and apologists for America-hating autocrats. But maybe I just don’t know what time it is…” McConnell wrote.
RESTORING AMERICA: TUCKER CARLSON’S DISGRACEFUL SOFTBALL NICK FUENTES INTERVIEW
Roberts reiterated in his Friday statement that the goal is “not to cancel.” He wrote that the Heritage Foundation’s “task is to confront and challenge those poisonous ideas at every turn to prevent them from taking America to a very dark place.”
“Join us—not to cancel—but to guide, challenge, and strengthen the conversation, and be confident as I am that our best ideas at the heart of western civilization will prevail,” Roberts said.
