The Heritage Foundation’s Kevin Roberts is walking back his defense of Tucker Carlson.

Carlson caused a major stir on the right last week when he decided to interview Nick Fuentes, a known white supremacist and Hitler fan. The interview was immediately flamed by conservative Jews, who condemned the ex–Fox News host’s decision to elevate Fuentes’s talking points.

Despite the opposition, Roberts released a video on X Thursday in support of Carlson and Fuentes, noting that while he disagreed with Fuentes’s beliefs, he did not believe that the “venomous” coalition “cancelling” the Christian nationalist Holocaust-denier had an appropriate reaction to the interview.

Since then, the Heritage Foundation has been embroiled in internal controversy, with at least one staffer exiting the institution over the mess. Roberts addressed the schism Wednesday.

“I made a mistake and I let you down and I let down this institution. Period. Full Stop,” the conservative think tank’s president told employees at an all-staff meeting, according to The Washington Free Beacon.

  • zd9@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    When the regime falls, Kevin Roberts will be one of them that faces real consequences.

  • Manjushri@piefed.social
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    1 month ago

    …with at least one staffer exiting the institution over the mess.

    The staffer reportedly asked, “Are we the baddies?” as he tendered his resignation.

  • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    “I made a mistake and I let you down and I let down this institution. Period. Full Stop,” the conservative think tank’s president told employees at an all-staff meeting, according to The Washington Free Beacon.

    “…I let the mask slip off a little too quickly. We have a clear plan and I just got so excited about the suffering of the poor I thought we were already on phase 6. This is a premature failure on my part, not the organization and its mission. I’d also like to take a moment to address our Jewish members and donors…‘It was just a prank, bro’. I hope this has addressed any fears that may have been raised that we are secretly white supremacists. Please continue on with the good work of phase 4.” - Roberts probably

  • MushuChupacabra@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Imagine being evil enough to work for the Heritage Foundation, but having to leave in disgust, on account of them being far too evil for you to tolerate.

      • rafoix@lemmy.zip
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        1 month ago

        Each leopard is only able to see and feel their own face being eaten. That’s the beauty of the “conservative” mind.

        They could be in a room with 100 other leopards and will be surprised that their face got eaten after 95 others’ faces got eaten.

  • TempermentalAnomaly@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    It’s weirdly satisfying watching the right fracture. Being on the left, we fracture over the most trivial and academic points despite being the party of solidarity and mass power. I hope we can grow the current excitement and victory into something notable.

    • fonix232@fedia.io
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      1 month ago

      The main fracturing on the left is primarily caused by ideological purists (aka tankies), who refuse to even consider that going from current capitalist systems to communism doesn’t happen at the flip of a switch and we need to slowly but surely push for more and more progress towards it. Mind you the same people in the same breath will go on and praise authoritarian, state-capitalist systems as if they’re an example to follow, so…

      Ideological debate should always be welcome when relevant and not detrimental to the goal. After all, everyone’s perspective is different and mutual understanding is a must for mutual respect. Even if we disagree on topics, debating them with logical reasoning is the way, and while that might look like fracturing, it’s still a much better option than, say, pooling behind a child rapist mango with pubes on top of it, just to appear united.

  • Nobody@anarchist.nexus
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    1 month ago

    “We’re not in the full-blown Nazi phase yet. We’re trying to control the pace of the takeover. If you can’t mask until the night of the long knives, you can’t be trusted with message.

    Resign immediately or we’ll leak your Epstein tapes.”

  • thanks AV@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    He said it to employees?

    Reported by Washington free beacon?

    This is bullshit. I’ll believe it when he goes on a national broadcast and

    ***********************

    you didn’t need to uncensor to know what he should do

  • LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net
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    1 month ago

    I feel like people need to think more deeply about cancellation and when it is and is not appropriate. Personally, I think it’s basically never appropriate for random powerless individuals to be canceled, no matter what they did. There’s just other, better ways to handle harmful behavior.

    Where cancellation is useful is for powerful, influential people who are actively and unapologetically harming people on an ongoing basis and can’t be stopped through other means. I’m not super familiar with Fuentes but it seems like he fits more in this latter category.

    • andros_rex@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Fuentes has explicitly compared interracial sex to beastiality. Fuentes has the opinions of the worst 4chan poster and would fully support the mass murder of Jewish and black people.