A month after Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts reportedly triggered a firestorm on the right by defending Tucker Carlson’s interview with white nationalist Nick Fuentes, Carlson has now turned on him — delivering a brutal assessment of Roberts’ leadership and the state of the institution he heads.
During a recent interview with 1819 News CEO Bryan Dawson, Carlson unloaded on Washington’s conservative think-tank culture, arguing that powerful institutions like Heritage have lost their backbone. He then singled out Roberts directly:
“There’s a man called Kevin Roberts, who I knew and really liked,” Carlson said. “Took over the Heritage Foundation a couple of years ago… and I thought that he could steer it into a positive direction. He tried. And in the end, 10 days ago, he was completely destroyed by this fighting within the Republican Party and the conservative movement.”
Carlson said the internal meltdown — sparked after Roberts publicly lashed out at conservatives who criticized Carlson’s Fuentes interview — showed how weak the organization has become.
“I think the Heritage Foundation will — and I say this with sadness because there are smart people there, they have a ton of money, they should be a force for good. But I don’t see how they ever will be.”
Dawson agreed, saying the situation “cannibalized” Roberts. Carlson didn’t hesitate to go even further, taking a sharper swipe at the man who had defended him at great political cost:
“Yep, and he allowed it. He was weak,” Carlson said. “He decided he wanted his job more than to tell the truth.”
Carlson framed Roberts’ actions as a moral failure — suggesting that every man faces a moment where he must choose between security and principle.
“You have to choose the truth because if you don’t, you’ll never recover,” Carlson said. He compared Roberts to the broken protagonist at the end of George Orwell’s 1984, saying that compromising under pressure “breaks” a person spiritually.
“They’ve shown him his greatest fears… and he gives in,” Carlson said. “When you do give in, you’re done. You’re dead in a way.”
Carlson urged conservatives not to follow the same path and to refuse to compromise out of fear of losing prestige or employment.
The comments come after Roberts faced heavy internal backlash — including from his own staff — for attacking conservatives who were outraged that Carlson gave Fuentes a friendly, unchallenged platform. At the time, Roberts tried to portray the backlash as evidence of weakness and infighting on the right. Instead, it triggered one of the most significant internal rebellions in Heritage’s recent history.
Now, in a twist, the very figure Roberts defended is publicly accusing him of cowardice and suggesting Heritage is no longer capable of being the conservative powerhouse it once was.
For conservatives watching Washington’s once-dominant institutions visibly fracture, Carlson’s blunt message landed with a clarity few in the GOP establishment are willing to voice: Heritage, long seen as a pillar of the movement, may be collapsing under its own timidity — and its own leadership.
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