Two high-profile members of the conservative Heritage Foundation's governing board recently resigned over the think tank's support for right-wing provocateur Tucker Carlson, according to a new report.
Abby Spencer Moffat and Shane McCullar resigned from the governing board, The New York Times reported on Tuesday. Their resignations followed Robert P. George, a professor at Princeton University, who resigned in November, and several departures from staff in recent weeks.
The departures occurred after Heritage President Kevin Roberts defended an interview Carlson had with an avowed white nationalist, Nick Fuentes. Roberts said after the interview that attacking Carlson was not in the Heritage Foundation's interests.
Moffat and McCullar said in their statements to the Times that the Heritage Foundation's "hesitation to confront harmful ideas" drove them to resign.
"When an institution hesitates to confront harmful ideas and allows lapses in judgment to stand, it forfeits the moral authority on which its influence depends,” Moffat statement said.
“No institution that hesitates to condemn antisemitism and hatred — or that gives a platform to those who spread them — can credibly claim to uphold the vision that once made the Heritage Foundation the world’s most respected conservative think tank,” McCullar said.