Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, issued a strong defense of former Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Thursday, rejecting calls from some conservatives to cut ties with him after his recent interview with right-wing commentator Nick Fuentes and criticism of the Israeli government.
“I’ll have more to say on this in the coming days, but today I want to be clear about one thing: Christians can critique the State of Israel without being anti-Semitic, and of course, anti-Semitism should be condemned,” Roberts said in a video statement.
The remarks came amid growing debate within conservative circles over how to handle Carlson’s controversial statements. While Carlson’s critics accused him of crossing a line by platforming Fuentes and questioning U.S. support for Israel, Roberts urged conservatives to resist what he called “the slander of bad actors who serve someone else’s agenda.”
“My loyalty as a Christian and as an American is to Christ first and to America always,” Roberts said. “When it serves the interests of the United States to cooperate with Israel and other allies, we should do so with partnerships on security, intelligence, and technology. But when it doesn’t, conservatives should feel no obligation to reflexively support any foreign government, no matter how loud the pressure becomes from the globalist class or from their mouthpieces in Washington.”
There has been speculation that @Heritage is distancing itself from @TuckerCarlson over the past 24 hours.
I want to put that to rest right now—here are my thoughts: pic.twitter.com/F8bcxBIqKI
— Kevin Roberts (@KevinRobertsTX) October 30, 2025
Roberts emphasized that Heritage, one of the most influential think tanks on the right, would not join in efforts to silence Carlson or others for their views. “The Heritage Foundation didn’t become the intellectual backbone of the conservative movement by canceling our own people or policing the consciences of Christians, and we won’t start doing that now,” he said. “We don’t take direction from comments on X, though we are grateful for the robust free speech debate. We also don’t take direction from members or donors, though we are inherently grateful for their support.”
He continued, “We will always defend truth, we will always defend America, and we will always defend our friends against the slander of bad actors who serve someone else’s agenda. That includes Tucker Carlson, who remains – and as I have said before, always will be – a close friend of the Heritage Foundation. The venomous coalition attacking him are sowing division. Their attempt to cancel him will fail.”
While Roberts made clear he disagreed with Fuentes’s rhetoric, he rejected the idea that cancellation or ostracism were the answers. “I disagree with, and even abhor, things that Nick Fuentes says, but canceling him is not the answer either,” Roberts said. “When we disagree with a person’s thoughts and opinions, we challenge those ideas in debate, and we have seen success in this approach as we continue to dismantle the vile ideas of the left.”
Citing Sen. J.D. Vance, Roberts concluded that the conservative movement must stay focused on putting American interests first. “As my friend Vice President Vance said last night, ‘What I am not okay with is any country coming before the interests of American citizens,’” Roberts said. “That’s where our allegiance lies and that’s where it will stay.”
Roberts’s remarks came after days of speculation on social media that Heritage had severed ties with Carlson following pressure from pro-Israel conservatives. Instead, Roberts’s statement left little doubt that Heritage intends to stand by him.
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