Is Tucker Carlson welcome?
That’s the question at the center of an ideological civil war roiling the political right that centers on antisemitism, Israel and just how big the conservative and MAGA “tent” is after the former Fox News host interviewed antiesmitic and white nationalist commentator Nick Fuentes last week.
And the answer has become a litmus test of sorts for conservatives.
Nowhere has been more affected by the debate over the past week than the Heritage Foundation. The leading conservative think tank’s president Kevin Roberts, who has a personal friendship with Carlson and has featured him at Heritage, made a controversial video last week asserting that Heritage would not bow to the “venomous coalition” trying to “cancel” Carlson over the interview with Fuentes, while saying that “Christians can critique the state of Israel without being antisemetic.”
Roberts went on to say in another statement and media appearances that the organization does not condone Fuentes and aims to win over disaffected young men through argument.
But uproar over the initial statement led to the reassignment and then resignation of his chief of staff, and the resignations of multiple members of its antisemitism task force.
Roberts said at a Wednesday staff meeting said the video defending Carlson was a mistake, that “venomous coalition” was a terrible choice of words, and there is a “limiting principle” to not canceling friends in that it’s possible to also be clear “you’re not endorsing everything they’ve said,” according to video obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
The debate about association with Carlson goes far beyond the Heritage Foundation. Other Republicans and conservative figures on the right are decrying Carlson as beyond the pale.
Carlson was explicitly condemned at a Republican Jewish Coalition conference in Las Vegas over the weekend.
“Today, Tucker Carlson is the most dangerous antisemite in America,” Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.) argued. “He has chosen to take on the mantle of leader of a modern-day Hitler youth; to broadcast and feature those who celebrate the Nazis, those who call for the extermination of Israel, to defend Hamas, to even criticize President Trump for stopping Iran’s nuclear ambitions.”
“Friends, make no mistake: Tucker is not MAGA,” Fine said, as young attendees at the conference held up printed signs that reinforced: “TUCKER IS NOT MAGA.”
Ben Shapiro, the founder of conservative Daily Wire, extensively excoriated Carlson in the wake of the Fuentes interview on a Monday episode of his own show, calling him an “intellectual coward, a dishonest interlocutor, and a terrible friend.”
Carlson was a standard-setter for hard-right Republicans when he had his job at Fox News, and remains one of the most powerful and connected commentators on the right. He campaigned for President Trump in 2024, and has elevated countless Republican politicians and other conservative commentators.
But in recent years, Carlson’s anti-interventionist foreign policy views, attitude toward Russian President Vladimir Putin, and criticism of Israel have made him a target of conservatives and Republicans who advocate for the U.S. taking a strong and active role in foreign affairs.
Calls to disassociate from Carlson amid bubbling tensions on the right over Israel came well before his interview with Fuentes.
After Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk was assassinated in September, Carlson, Turning Point USA staff, and others talked publicly about the pressure that Kirk was under from pro-Israel donors to disassociate from Carlson, but that Kirk was standing by Carlson anyway.
Two days before Kirk’s assassination, one top Turning Point USA donor told Kirk he was going to pull a $2 million donation pledge to Turning Point USA over its association with Carlson and him being slated to speak at the organization’s major December event, AmericaFest. The New York Times reported that the donor was tech billionaire Robert J. Shillman.
Longtime GOP opponents of Carlson’s ideology hope that his interview with Fuentes will help others on the right see him as a pariah.
“I’ve had a long-standing feud with Tucker Carlson. I’m glad everyone is also waking up now to how bad of a person he is,” Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) said on “Face the Nation” on Sunday.
“This idea that … it’s cancel culture if we keep Tucker out of our circles from now on is just nonsense,” Crenshaw said.
Carlson on the podcast with Fuentes said he wanted to understand Fuentes’s views, saying that while he also questioned the U.S. relationship with Israel, to say “well actually it’s the Jews” goes “against my Christian faith.” But he got criticism for not being aggressive enough in challenging Fuentes’s ideology — or admiration for Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin — as well as for stating that he disliked Christian Zionists “more than anybody.”
Carlson responded to a number of the criticisms of his interview with Fuentes during an appearance on comedian and Israel critic Dave Smith’s podcast. He said he was sorry for his comment about Christian Zionists, and that he was “mad at a certain kind of thinking.” He regretted not returning to press Fuentes on his admiration for Stalin.
But Carlson said of the intense backlash to his interview: “It’s about something bigger … On a political level, this is a fight over what happens after Donald Trump. What does the Republican Party look like? Does it actually adopt an America First foreign policy as promised 10 years ago?
“Who raised Randy Fine?” Carlson later said, referring to the Florida congressman’s criticism. “Those people are not the future at all. That’s why they’re hysterical.”
Some Republicans who Carlson has featured on his show have no desire to engage in debate about him as a figure in the midst of the ideological civil war.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), asked about Carlson’s place in the conservative movement, said: “I’m not going to feed into that story at all. I support the State of Israel.”
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) had a somewhat ambiguous answer when asked whether Carlson has a place in the conservative movement by a National Review reporter on Tuesday.
“Look, I heard a compilation of some of the worst things that Nick Fuentes has said. It’s—it’s absolutely outrageous,” Johnson said.
He added, “I think we have to call out antisemitism wherever it is. And I don’t think, whether it’s Tucker or anybody else, I don’t think we should be giving a platform to that speech. He has a First Amendment right, but we shouldn’t ever amplify it.”
