By: The Editorial Board - wsj.com - November 9, 2025

Heritage Foundation leader Kevin Roberts now knows it was unwise to publish a video bear-hugging Tucker Carlson and assailing critics of the podcast host’s chummy interview with Hitler fanboy Nick Fuentes. On Wednesday he finally told his think-tank staff he wants to take responsibility, but the saga underscores the risks to the right from playing footsie with antisemites.

When that didn’t work, Mr. Roberts changed tack. “Sometimes you can make a mistake with the best of intentions,” he said Monday. “My mistake was not saying we aren’t going to participate in cancel culture—we’re not. My mistake was letting that . . . override the central motivation that I had,” which was “fighting against antisemitism in all its forms.”

Nice words but striking given that Mr. Roberts’s video had joined Mr. Carlson in the Jew-baiting. The video’s major theme was that critics of Mr. Carlson—for promoting rather than challenging a proud antisemite—were trying to suppress Christian criticism of Israel and impose loyalty to a foreign government, betraying America.

Heritage’s Victoria Coates ignored this in her letter to us last week detailing her institution’s good work, which Mr. Roberts undermined. The antisemitism task force she co-chairs has now severed ties with Heritage.

In a private staff meeting Wednesday, Mr. Roberts recognized he had erred with his no-enemies-to-the-right talk. “There is a limiting principle,” he said at last, adding that there was no need to defend a “softball interview” with a Hitler admirer. Why was that so hard?

“I made a mistake, and I let you down and I let down this institution,” Mr. Roberts said. In explanation, he said he didn’t know much about Mr. Fuentes, who had been central to his remarks; didn’t write the video script; didn’t question it because he believed it had been vetted by others; and doesn’t “consume a lot of news” in general. It’s as if he were trying to reassure his staff that he doesn’t pay attention to what he says.

“I made the mess; let me clean it up,” Mr. Roberts told staff. But when senior fellow Robert Rector asked about Mr. Carlson, Mr. Roberts replied instead only about Mr. Fuentes. Senior fellow Amy Swearer spoke up to observe that Mr. Roberts has shown a “stunning lack of both courage and judgment.”

Heritage’s Mike Gonzalez framed the issue well to Mr. Roberts: “I made a forever promise to my wife. I didn’t make a forever promise to Tucker Carlson. What the heck is that?” Even as Mr. Roberts warned Monday about antisemitism on “far fringes of the right,” he remained on his tiptoes when it came to Mr. Carlson, who launders Jew-loathing to the mainstream.

This is far from the first and won’t be the last time Mr. Carlson hosts an anti-Jewish or anti-American conspiracy theorist for a supportive, promotional chat. He calls this truth-telling, no matter how untruthful his guests are.

Strategic silences about this venom will increase the moral and political damage to the American right. Vice President JD Vance owes much of his political rise to Mr. Carlson’s time at Fox News, and we’ll learn more about his political character by how the VP responds to his ally’s descent.

In a video late on Wednesday, Mr. Roberts finally gave a carefully worded mention to Mr. Carlson’s fixation. “Everyone has the responsibility to speak up against the scourge of antisemitism, no matter the messenger. Heritage and I will do so, even when my friend Tucker Carlson needs challenging,” he said. That’s important, and we look forward to seeing it.