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WASHINGTON — A board member of the Heritage Foundation’s antisemitism task force resigned Wednesday, as the think tank’s president Kevin Roberts apologized for his defense of Tucker Carlson following the right-wing podcaster’s “softball” interview with white supremacist Nick Fuentes.
Laurie Cardoza-Moore announced she was withdrawing from the board of the National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, also known as Project Esther, due to Roberts’ embrace of Carlson days after the Fuentes sitdown was released.
“I proudly accepted the invitation to serve on the Heritage Foundation’s Task Force as a tool to fight Jew Hatred, but I am being forced to stand down — unless they draw a clear line in the sand,” said Cardoza-Moore.
“Kevin Robert’s recent statement following Tucker Carlson’s interview with Nick Fuentes was extremely concerning,” she added. “If the Heritage Foundation wants to stand on the right side of history, they must cut all ties with antisemites.”
Cardoza-Moore, who founded the Christian Zionist group Proclaiming Justice to the Nations, claimed that she had told Carlson “in person and publicly, he is a dangerous antisemite.”
Roberts in a private town hall with Heritage staff on Wednesday said he “made a mistake” by issuing a full-throated defense of the former Fox News host.
“I let you down and I let down this institution. Period. Full Stop,” the Heritage leader told attendees, according to video of the remarks released by The Washington Free Beacon. “I made the mess, let me clean it up.”
“You can say you’re not going to participate in canceling someone,” he added, “while also being clear you’re not endorsing everything they’ve said, you’re not endorsing softball interviews, you’re not endorsing putting people on shows, and I should’ve made that clear.”
Carlson lashed out at his detractors during an appearance on comedian Dave Smith’s podcast this week, saying that he “thought a lot” before having Fuentes on his show after he and his family had even been “tarred” by the far-right commentator.
“For one, Nick had attacked my father, my wife, one of my children,” he noted, implying Fuentes was a federal “op designed to tar sane, anti-neocon[servative], pro-realist foreign policy people … tar us as Nazis.”
“But basically in the end, I decided, Nick Fuentes can’t be cancelled,” he affirmed, before echoing comments similar to those Roberts had made after the interview. “He is enormously talented, anyone who denies that is lying, and he has … a semi-coherent kind of position.”
“He’s the most influential voice for men under 30 in the United States,” he added.
“The idea that I hate Jews — obviously I don’t hate Jews at all,” Carlson also said. “I’m not allowed to hate any person because of the group he’s attached to — I reject — that’s what identity politics is. It’s the belief that people are better or worse based on how they were born. That is not a Western understanding of people, or of God.”
High-ranking Heritage staffers said they were “disgusted” by Roberts’ decision to wrap his arms around “The Tucker Carlson Show” host, according to internal chats first reported by The Post.
“I’m disgusted by this and don’t understand how this premeditated and orchestrated response could come out of one of the biggest think tanks in the world,” one wrote to colleagues.
Another questioned whether they or other Heritage staffers who disagreed with Roberts were “part of the venomous coalition for calling out Tucker for playing footsie with literal Nazis?”
Tens of millions of X users viewed the Fuentes interview, during which the 27-year-old white nationalist denounced the influence of “organized Jewry” in American politics and revealed he was “a fan” of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
Carlson also accused American Christians who support the state of Israel of being heretics with a “brain virus” on the podcast episode, put out Oct. 27.
Roberts, who has since acknowledged he “didn’t know much about this Fuentes guy,” released a video statement on Oct. 30 prompted by pressure his think tank had been getting to cut ties with Carlson.
“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,” he said.
“The venomous coalition attacking him are sowing division. Their attempt to cancel him will fail,” added Roberts, while also noting “I disagree with and even abhor things that Nick Fuentes said … but canceling him is not the answer either.”
Neither reps for Heritage nor Carlson immediately responded to requests for comment.
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