Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) weighed in on Friday at the chaos at the Heritage Foundation, one of the preeminent right-wing think tanks for decades, amid a scandal over their leadership's defense of former Fox News personality turned white nationalist figure Tucker Carlson.
Carlson provoked outrage even in many corners of the right by interviewing Nick Fuentes, a neo-Nazi activist who has defended Hitler and dedicated his life to putting white supremacist ideas in the mainstream. But Heritage president Kevin Roberts voiced support for the interview, saying, "Most importantly, the American people expect us to be focusing on our political adversaries on the left, and not attacking our friends on the right. I disagree with and even abhor things that Nick Fuentes says, but canceling him is not the answer either."
This remark did not sit well with McConnell, the former Republican Senate Leader.
"The 'intellectual backbone of the conservative movement' is only as strong as the values it defends," McConnell posted to X. "Last I checked, 'conservatives should feel no obligation' to carry water for antisemites and apologists for America-hating autocrats. But maybe I just don’t know what time it is..."
The Heritage Foundation famously crafted the Project 2025 agenda, an extensive blueprint that the Trump administration is using to restructure the federal government for long-term Republican control. Trump initially denied any involvement with the proposal while he was on the campaign trail, even though many of his first administration alumni helped work on it.
McConnell, despite playing a key role in Trump's legislative and judicial agenda in his first term, has had a frosty relationship with the president the second time around, with right-wing activists accusing him of sabotaging the administration before it had even been set up.
