An Interview with Kevin Roberts, President of The Heritage Foundation

Boy, that escalated quickly

The Heritage Foundation’s president, Kevin Roberts, has been at the center of an internet maelstrom this week over his decision to publicly stand by Tucker Carlson following the podcasters’ decision to conduct a controversial interview with Nick Fuentes, the young openly anti-Semitic leader of the “groyper” movement. Carlson’s interview was widely condemned, but Roberts took to X to voice his opposition to Carlson’s critics, and respond to Heritage donors who apparently were demanding the organization disavow Carlson, who has been a key supporter and speaker at Heritage events for years.

Rather than tamp down on criticism, Roberts’ video statement met with an explosive reaction, including condemnations from a cavalcade of conservative publications and commentators. (It’s pretty rare when you can find Ted Cruz and Mitch McConnell on the same page.) In response to some of the critics, Roberts posted this afternoon reiterating that he is not in agreement with Nick Fuentes on virtually anything. But there are still a lot of unanswered questions considering the prominence of the Heritage Foundation as a “backbone of the conservative movement”, as Roberts describes it, and the role it plays in pushing back on rising anti-Semitism on the right.

I reached out to Kevin to get his side of the story, and to put numerous questions to him that I saw conservatives and libertarians asking on X throughout the day. He was happy to talk. Our exclusive interview is here:

You can also download the audio of the interview here: