Project 2025 leader apologizes for his 'kid-glove treatment' of Holocaust denier

The right-wing Heritage Foundation's president, Kevin Roberts, is facing "open revolt" from his members and allies over his defense of former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and his handling of the controversy around the think tank's Project 2025 blueprint.

Roberts infuriated many in the conservative movement for posting a video defense of Carlson, who set off a firestorm of his own by inviting Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes onto his podcast, and the Heritage president faced calls to resign Wednesday at a staff meeting for using language that many see as antisemitic tropes about a “venomous coalition” and “the globalist class," reported the Washington Post.

"Legal fellow Amy Swearer during the meeting called Roberts’s handling of the controversy 'a master class in cowardice that ran cover for the most unhinged dregs of the far right' and described a loss of confidence in his leadership. Asked later in the meeting about his use of the term 'globalists' — a common dog whistle for a conspiratorial view of world 'Jewry' — Roberts said he didn’t mean to imply criticism of anyone of any particular faith," the Post reported.

The meeting erupted into a squabble over whether Christian employees would be forced to participate in Jewish rituals, the newspaper reported, and at least five members of Heritage’s antisemitism task force have resigned in protest, along with distinguished fellow Chris DeMuth, and Roberts attempted to contain the damage.

"Roberts [told staffers] Heritage was 'wordsmithing and workshopping' language over how to distance itself from Carlson, though Roberts said he would remain a personal friend," the Post reported. "He called Fuentes an 'evil person' but one who 'has an audience of several million people, and at least some of that audience might be open to be converted' to mainstream conservatism."

Some staffers did defend Roberts, with one referring to employees who spoke to reporters as "Judas," and the think tank president's speechwriter Evan Myers suggested that efforts to address antisemitism accusations would eventually mean he'd be forced to sit down for a Shabbat dinner that he complained would conflict with his own faith.

Roberts has angered many in the conservative and MAGA movements during his four-year tenure as head of the $335 million foundation by backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the 2024 GOP primary and then promoting the think tank's Project 2025 as a Trump-aligned initiative, and women staffers have complained they face demeaning treatment inside the organization.

“This was the final straw for me. It’s just the last one, but there are many that have come before it,” researcher Rachel Greszler told Roberts at the staff meeting. “You have always been kind to me, but I do not believe that you are the right person to lead the Heritage Foundation.”

Roberts acknowledged Monday in a speech at Hillsdale College that he let his disdain for so-called cancel culture "override" his desire to appeal to “disaffected young men who are looking for belonging and identity by following the wrong people," but that apology fell flat with some Heritage staffers.

“When Kevin Roberts repeatedly defended Tucker Carlson after his kid-glove treatment of Nick Fuentes, I lost faith that Heritage is the right institution to lead this important fight,” said lawyer Ian Speir, who had been a member of the antisemitism task force. “We cannot let this malevolent evil make further inroads into our politics and civil discourse. It will literally destroy us.”

Roberts posted an apology video Wednesday night on X, after the staff meeting revolt.

"Everyone has the responsibility to speak up against the scourge of antisemitism, no matter the messenger, he said in a video posted on X. "Heritage and I will do so, even when my friend Tucker Carlson needs challenging."