A week and a half after his initial defense of Tucker Carlson's interview with antisemitic fringe commentator Nick Fuentes, Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts — who has since apologized for and walked back his initial statements — is waiting for the dust to settle and stressing that he will stick around.
Roberts told some Heritage staff in a meeting on Monday that despite calls from outside critics and staff inside the organization to step aside, he is not going anywhere, the organization is moving on, and that the press cycle will soon focus on something else, a source told me. That comes after Roberts publicly said he had decided to stay at Heritage.
As the organization works to move forward, Andy Olivastro, Heritage Foundation's chief advancement officer, sent an email on the recent controversy to the organization's outside partners on Friday, which I obtained.
"The Heritage Foundation is rooted in principles and policies, not personalities. We will not make the mistake of placing individuals—even friends—above the critical mission of the institution that all of us are entrusted to steward," Olivastro said.
It has been a brutal week for Heritage and Roberts. He faced extensive criticism from employees in a leaked all-staff meeting last week. An antisemitism task force that Heritage helped create severed ties with the think tank. Former Minnesota GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann called for Roberts to be removed. Heritage scholar Chris DeMuth resigned from Heritage amid the turmoil, as did economist Stephen Moore, with Heritage offering friendly statements about each departure.
The Washington Post deeply reported on Heritage staff being in "open revolt." CNN reported that a donor who contributes more than half a million dollars annually to the conservative think tank will no longer be giving to Heritage. The Wall Street Journal went in depth about the controversy as well.
Two board members did speak up in the immediate aftermath of the Carlson video without addressing it directly. Robert P. George, professor of jurisprudence at Princeton University, critiqued the "no enemies to the right" ethos that Roberts alluded to in the video. And Heritage board trustee John Coleman, co-CEO at Sovereign's Capital, wrote a post condemning antisemitism.
But as calls for Roberts to step down or be removed persist, and outside figures on the right chime in, the full Heritage Foundation board of trustees — chaired by Amway heir Barb Van Andel-Gaby — has been silent, in what can only be taken as implicit support for Roberts.
That has frustrated some people both inside and outside Heritage.
"The board has failed in its legal fiduciary obligation to protect the staff and the institution from harm," one Heritage foundation staff member told me.
Roberts critics both inside and outside Heritage lament that its longtime president and co-founder, Ed Feulner — who stepped in to take the reins after Heritage ousted DeMint in 2017 — passed away this summer. Outside conservatives I've spoken to speculate that the board sees little upside to removing Roberts, not wanting to bow to the critics or bring even more negative attention on the organization.
The objections to Roberts go far beyond the recent controversy over Carlson, Fuentes and antisemitism. Tensions have simmered for years about Heritage's shifts on foreign policy and on economics and tariffs under Roberts as he's embraced the "New Right" and tried to take the organization in a more Trump-friendly direction. And the organization was, of course, excoriated by both Democrats and Republicans for promoting its Project 2025 book of policy proposals.
Roberts supporters say there is still plenty of support for him, as shown by some applause for him in the leaked staff meeting.
A Heritage spokesperson told me that since the think tank is a microcosm of the entire conservative movement with robust internal debates, it's natural that there are conflicting viewpoints within the organization, and it makes sense that other outside organizations would have activism.
And the spokesperson said that contrary to claims that Heritage is taking a financial hit in wake of the controversy, fundraising last week was above average compared with weekly averages for this year.
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