Wall Street Journal Slams Heritage Foundation Over ‘Antisemitic’ Defense of Right-Wing Extremists

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board issued a scathing rebuke Monday against the Heritage Foundation and its president, Kevin Roberts, accusing him of coddling antisemitism and legitimizing extremist voices on the right. The editorial, titled “The New Right’s New Antisemites,” warns that antisemitic rhetoric is “spreading wider and faster than we thought,” propelled by right-wing influencers like Tucker Carlson and white nationalist provocateur Nick Fuentes— and, more alarmingly, abetted by figures once seen as pillars of the conservative establishment.
The Journal’s board focused its criticism on Roberts’ video last week defending Carlson after the former Fox News host invited Fuentes onto his podcast for what the paper described as a “chummy” conversation. Fuentes, a self-professed admirer of Adolf Hitler, used the platform to denounce “organized Jewry” and “Zionist Jews” as enemies of America—rhetoric that the editorial likened to the darkest chapters of 20th-century extremism. According to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, “Fuentes is a well-known white supremacist, anti-Semite and Holocaust denier.” The Center quoted Fuentes denying that 6 million Jews could have been murdered during the Holocaust.
Fuentes said, “How long would it take you to make 6 million? Hmm, I don’t know, it certainly wouldn’t be five years, right? The math doesn’t seem to add up…” Fuentes is also quoted as saying, “I piss on your Talmud. Jews get the f out of America.” The Journal observed that rather than condemning the interview, Roberts accused a “venomous coalition” of trying to “cancel” Carlson and Fuentes. “I disagree with — and even abhor — things that Nick Fuentes says,” Roberts said in his video. “But canceling him is not the answer either.”
The Wall Street Journal called this a false equivalence and a dereliction of leadership, arguing that Roberts “joined in the Jew-baiting” by reframing the outrage not as a question of antisemitism, but of “Christian freedom of conscience.” The editorial quoted Roberts’ insistence that “Christians can critique the state of Israel without being antisemitic,” calling the remark a rhetorical “straw man” echoing left-wing defenses of anti-Israel protests. “Most importantly,” Roberts said, “the American people expect us to focus on our political adversaries on the left, not attack our friends on the right.”
The Journal retorted that this logic—a “no enemies to the right” philosophy—would “cost Republicans elections and endanger the country.” Jewish leaders demanded accountability, with Morton Klein of the Zionist Organization of America calling Roberts’ remarks “a disgrace to the conservative movement” and urging the Heritage board to “act decisively to preserve its integrity.” The controversy has reportedly deepened existing rifts within Heritage, with Ryan Neuhaus, Roberts’ chief of staff, quietly reassigned after the uproar.
The Wall Street Journal editorial drew a historical parallel to William F. Buckley Jr., who famously excommunicated the John Birch Society in the 1960s to keep conservatism credible. “Builders of the conservative movement like Heritage’s Ed Feulner knew that tolerating hate would destroy it from within,” the Journal wrote. “Roberts’ failure to grasp this lesson endangers the entire conservative project.” Calls for Roberts’ resignation intensified, with Jewish advocacy organizations demanding that Heritage’s board remove him to “restore moral credibility.”
“If conservatives and Republicans don’t call out this poison in their own ranks before it corrupts more young minds, the right and America are entering dangerous territory,” the Journal concluded.