Kevin Roberts giving a lecture at CCA II in Plaster Auditorium on Nov. 3, 2025.
Courtesy | Mason Dice

Kevin Roberts warns students against right-wing antisemitism

The president of the Heritage Foundation offered an apology during his Center for Constructive Alternatives lecture Monday night, saying he failed to condemn antisemitism adequately in a recent video statement on the continued relationship of Heritage with political commentator Tucker Carlson. 

“Let me say loud and clear: The Heritage Foundation, which has always not only stood against antisemitism — and I, if you know anything about my career, have done the same — we will never, ever, ever stop fighting against antisemitism in all its forms,” Roberts said in Plaster Auditorium.

The conservative think tank president came under fire in the past week for a video statement posted to the Heritage Foundation X account Oct. 30 in response to Carlson’s interview with right-wing extremist Nick Fuentes, who has voiced antisemitic beliefs and admiration for Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. 

“Kevin had been scheduled to speak at the college for some months. In light of the controversy, he decided to make some remarks about it,” College President Larry Arnn told The Collegian. “I understand that Kevin will have more to say about this in the coming days. For my part, I support the U.S. alliance with Israel and abhor the nutty Nick Fuentes, as does Kevin. I did not like the Tucker Carlson interview with the Nietzschean Fuentes.” 

The Heritage Foundation does not forsake friends, Roberts said in response to a student question, but that does not mean it supports the way Carlson conducts his show or endorses everything Carlson and Fuentes said.

“All of us, especially in our generation, need to give great care to understanding that the rise of antisemitism is occurring, not just on the left, but on the right,” Roberts said. “While we don’t want to participate in the ‘cancel culture,’ which has its own repercussions like growing audiences, that doesn’t mean we’re endorsing every word of the content, or even a lot of the content.”

Americans expect the Heritage Foundation to focus on its political adversaries on the left rather than attacking friends on the right, Roberts said in his video statement.

“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,” Roberts said in the video. “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.”

Heritage Chief of Staff Ryan Neuhaus resigned Friday in the wake of uproar over the statement, and Executive Vice President Derrick Morgan took his place. At least two members of the Heritage Foundation antisemitism task force have also stepped down, one calling Roberts’ comments at Hillsdale insufficient. 

“It is a strategic non-apology that doubles down on ‘loyalty’ to Tucker Carlson,” attorney Ian Speir wrote in an X post. “It is the elevation of blind loyalty and a thirst for power above principle — the very opposite of historical American conservatism.”

Roberts said Monday he posted the video with the best of intentions. He and the Heritage Foundation, he reiterated, do not participate in “cancel culture.” 

“My mistake was not saying we aren’t going to participate in ‘cancel culture.’ We’re not,” Roberts said. “My mistake was letting that, which we will never backtrack from, override the central motivation that I had in doing that.”

Roberts said he is concerned by the growth of antisemitism on the right, especially among young men. He also apologized to friends of the Heritage Foundation, in particular Jewish friends, and said he appreciated the opportunity to clarify his intentions at Hillsdale.

“The first principle of communication is: If anyone doesn’t understand what you were saying, then you didn’t say it the right way,” Roberts said. “I am grateful to be able to explain that here at this institution.”

Professor of Philosophy and Religion Nathan Schlueter said he respected Roberts’ willingness to make a public apology.

“That is what statesmen and gentlemen do, and we don’t seem to have many today,” Schlueter said. “That fact that it was at Hillsdale seems both accidental and serendipitous. Accidental because he was already scheduled to speak here and because the need to issue a statement was pressing. Serendipitous because Hillsdale College’s mission is to promote ‘intelligent piety,’ which is opposed by both cancellation culture and racism and antisemitism.”

Visiting Professor of Jewish Studies Michael Weingrad said he appreciated Roberts’ comments, but the confusion caused by the original video persists. 

“He made a welcome statement declaring antisemitism unacceptable but did not explain why he said that Christians and Jews who reject repugnant ideologies, such as those espoused by Fuentes and insinuated by Carlson, are engaging in ‘cancel culture,’ or why he said they act at the behest of what he described as a ‘venomous’ fifth column,” Weingrad said.

Schlueter said Roberts’ original video seemed like an unforced error.

“Heritage does great work, and there was no need here to enter the fray,” Schlueter said. “He is right that anti-Zionism and antisemitism are not the same thing. He is also right to speak against cancellation. But these are both straw men, since Fuentes is overtly antisemitic, and no one to my knowledge was trying to cancel Carlson. Criticism is not cancellation. The problem was not that Carlson interviewed Fuentes. The problem was his failure to challenge Fuentes by asking, and pressing, hard questions.”

Senior Will Deaton said right-wing criticism of Carlson for the interview is “cancel culture.” 

“Right now, Tucker is being persecuted by the right because he interviewed Nick Fuentes,” Deaton said. “This is ‘cancel culture,’ and the right is committing it. Frankly, I am angry that Kevin Roberts felt the pressure and caved.”

Weingrad said he agrees with Roberts’ statement that the right has a growing antisemitism problem, and it must be addressed.

“I think part of this is because young people today have come of age during a terrible crisis of authority,” Weingrad said. “In this environment, it’s difficult to tell someone to take a red pill but not the whole bottle, as one pundit put it. Antisemitism is effective in the short term for quickly grabbing political power, clicks, and donations. But ultimately, it’s where sanity and decency go to die.”

Sophomore Yahli Salzman, president of the Jewish Michpacha on campus, said he has seen antisemitism grow on the right in the past few years. Education and conversation will be key in rooting out antisemitism among young people, he said.

“Everyone can be critical of a government, but when it devolves into saying people shouldn’t have a right to exist, that is when a line must be drawn,” Salzman said. 

Sophomore Pierce Leaman said he thought Roberts’ original statement let his defense of Carlson outweigh his condemnation of antisemitism, but he said he is more than satisfied by the apology. 

“While I don’t believe in deplatforming or canceling, Tucker’s recent comments have no place in organizations like the Heritage Foundation, nor are they conservative in any way,” Leaman said. “I think Nick Fuentes is at best a grifter and at worst a very dangerous Nazi, but he does deserve the right to an interview. What I have problems with is the clear agenda Tucker Carlson pushes. He does not interview fairly. He has [Senator] Ted Cruz on his show and interrupts him every other word for supporting Israel, then has the president of Iran on and Fuentes on and listens like a docile puppy.”

Leaman agreed there is a difference between anti-Zionism and antisemitism but said it is a fine line between the two in practice.

“Too often cogent debates about foreign aid get derailed into blatant attacks on the Jewish race or religion,” Leaman said. “This has no place in the conservative movement, and if it takes over the discourse, the right will be no different than the radical woke Black Lives Matter left who blame problems on ethnicity and people groups, not individuals. Young conservatives should have an open mind toward the issue, and state their opinions without resorting to the dark rhetoric of a Fuentes, or increasingly, a Carlson.”