Tucker Carlson’s recent, amiable interview with Nick Fuentes — a figure long associated with antisemitic, white-nationalist rhetoric — has forced a reckoning across conservative circles about who belongs in our movement and how we defend core American values. Carlson’s platforming of someone who traffics in Holocaust denial and racial conspiracy theories is not mere provocation; it’s a test of whether the right will tolerate hate under the banner of “debate.”
The Heritage Foundation’s public defense of Carlson, and its resistance to “canceling” Fuentes, was a misstep that handed the left an easy talking point while sowing confusion among mainstream conservatives who want nothing to do with antisemitism. When influential institutions start equivocating in the face of obvious moral lines, they weaken the conservative brand and play into narratives that the GOP harbors extremists.
That is why principled Republicans — including leaders within the Republican Jewish Coalition — have pushed back hard. Senior conservative Jewish voices have said plainly that defending or normalizing someone who spreads Jew-hatred is unacceptable, and those rebukes are not liberal grandstanding but a necessary defense of decency and alliance politics. The RJC’s engagement on this issue underscores that standing with Israel and against antisemitism remains a mainstream, conservative commitment.
Republican Jewish Coalition figures, who regularly appear on conservative outlets to make their case, are rightly reminding fellow conservatives that American patriotism includes defending religious minorities and the rule of law. Conservatives can and should champion robust debate, but debate is not a license to amplify those who deny history or traffic in racial hatred — and it’s embarrassing when think tanks act otherwise.
Some on the right reflexively cry “cancel” whenever accountability is demanded, but defending freedom of speech does not mean platforming antisemites without challenge. We can protect free expression while also refusing to give legitimacy to movements and individuals that would tear at the civic fabric of this country. That distinction is what separates conservatism rooted in Judeo-Christian values and the Constitution from fringe nihilism.
Republicans who truly love this country should be clear-eyed: tolerating or excusing Jew-hatred corrodes conservative credibility and hands the left a moral victory. Leaders in the party — from grassroots activists to Washington officeholders — must speak with one voice against bigotry, rein in wayward institutions, and restore the proud, pro-Israel, pro-family center of our coalition.
Now is the moment for conservatives to choose: double down on the values that built America, or let the movement be defined by a noisy fringe. Hardworking Americans expect better from their leaders than squabbles over who’s allowed a microphone; they expect moral clarity, loyalty to allies, and a political movement that defends the innocent and rejects hate in all its forms.
