{"id":359781,"date":"2025-11-06T12:36:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T12:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/359781\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T12:36:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T12:36:20","slug":"how-nick-fuentes-ignited-a-civil-war-within-the-republican-party-and-dcs-most-prominent-conservative-think-tank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/359781\/","title":{"rendered":"How Nick Fuentes ignited a civil war within the Republican Party- and DC\u2019s most prominent conservative think tank"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Nick Fuentes, the well-known White nationalist<\/a> and Holocaust denier, has ignited a civil war within the Republican Party \u2014 and inside one of Washington\u2019s most prominent conservative think tanks.\n <\/p>\n

\n A bitter split has erupted on the political right after former Fox News host Tucker Carlson hosted Fuentes on his podcast for an overwhelmingly friendly conversation. Some conservatives, including Dinesh D\u2019Souza<\/a> and Ben Shapiro, have condemned Carlson for elevating a fringe figure who has expressed an affinity for Adolf Hitler<\/a> and regularly traffics in racist, sexist and antisemitic tropes.\n <\/p>\n

\n Much of the pushback has focused on their sharp criticism of Israel during the show and their mockery of Christians who have made support for the Jewish state a top priority.\n <\/p>\n

\n But Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts defended Carlson, a close ally who addressed the organization\u2019s annual gathering in April. Roberts argued that criticizing Carlson and shunning Fuentes undermines the crusade against censorship and so-called cancel culture.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cChristians can critique the state of Israel without being antisemitic,\u201d Roberts said in a lengthy direct-to-camera statement<\/a> that has since garnered more than 24 million views on social media.\n <\/p>\n

\n The backlash has been swift against Roberts, triggering a wave of unrest within Heritage and raising questions about the future of an institution that has for decades been a pillar of the conservative movement.\n <\/p>\n

\"President<\/p>\n

\n In interviews with current and former staff, and in internal messages among senior employees reviewed by CNN, multiple people described deep frustration and loss of confidence in Roberts\u2019 leadership at Heritage.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019s an absolute shitshow, he\u2019s lost control of the organization,\u201d one senior staff member told CNN. \u201cIt is open rebellion, it is disgust \u2026 85% are totally disgusted.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n In the chat messages reviewed by CNN, senior Heritage staff described a workplace consumed by dissent \u2014 \u201cflailing and in damage control,\u201d as one wrote. Others expressed frustration and disappointment. \u201cIt just makes me sad and mad,\u201d wrote one top level staffer. One senior staffer reposted a colleague\u2019s comment, \u201cThis crap is really hurting Heritage,\u201d and added, \u201cas it should.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n A source who provided transcripts of the chat asked that their name not be used for fear of retaliation.\n <\/p>\n

\n Several current and former Heritage employees, who did not want their names used for fear of retribution, told CNN the episode has accelerated donor unease and internal turnover, with some staff describing morale as the lowest in years. Others said the backlash underscores a broader identity crisis within Heritage, saying there was tension between its traditional policy experts and the newer cadre of political operatives brought in under Roberts, who assumed the helm in 2021.\n <\/p>\n

\n Attempts by CNN to reach Fuentes and Carlson for comment were not successful. But on his podcast, Fuentes has said disorder is central to his plan for pulling the GOP toward his worldview.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe want disruption, we want chaos, we want infighting,\u201d he said in September.\n <\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

\n Founded in 1973, Heritage has long been a driving force aiding Republican policymaking \u2014 from past Republican <\/strong>administrations\u2019 <\/strong>conservative tax agendas to President Donald Trump\u2019s judicial appointments.\n <\/p>\n

\n Under Roberts, it has pushed a harder-line message, positioning the organization at the center of Project 2025 \u2014 a sweeping policy blueprint for a potential Republican administration that included calls for restructuring the federal government and curtailing federal workforce protections. The plan proved controversial enough that even Trump publicly distanced himself from some of its proposals.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Fuentes controversy has only deepened internal divisions over that direction.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cMany staff are outraged,\u201d a former top staffer who worked under Roberts also told CNN. \u201cI\u2019ve spoken with numerous (staff).\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI\u2019m disgusted by this and don\u2019t understand how this premeditated and orchestrated response could come out of one of the biggest think tanks in the world,\u201d another wrote in the text exchange.\n <\/p>\n

\n Some of the messages were first reported on Monday by the New York Post.\n <\/p>\n

\n Neither Roberts nor the Heritage Foundation responded to CNN\u2019s requests for comment.\n <\/p>\n

\n One major donor, whose organization contributes more than half a million dollars annually to the Heritage Foundation, told CNN they have lost faith in Roberts\u2019 leadership. \u201cI\u2019m waiting to see how things play out, but if Kevin remains as president we will not be giving to Heritage,\u201d said the donor, who asked their name not be used due to privacy concerns.\n <\/p>\n

\n The episode also comes just weeks after similar divisions emerged<\/a> on the right over a trove of text messages from young Republican operatives published by Politico, which included someone saying \u201cI love Hitler,\u201d with others contributing Holocaust jokes and racial slurs.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIf you sit there with someone who says Adolf Hitler was very, very cool and their mission is to combat and defeat \u2018global Jewry\u2019, and you say nothing, then you are a coward, and you are complicit in that evil,\u201d Texas Sen. Ted Cruz \u2014 who has sparred with Carlson<\/a> before \u2014 said last weekend during remarks at the Republican Jewish Coalition\u2019s annual gathering.\n <\/p>\n

\"Tucker<\/p>\n

\n The growing influence of Fuentes, especially following the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk<\/a>, exposes a broader rift inside the Republican Party over whether to distance the GOP from the kind of rhetoric he represents.\n <\/p>\n

\n In addition to Cruz, Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell has also come out against Carlson\u2019s approach to Fuentes in recent days. So has Laura Loomer<\/a>, the far-right provocateur<\/a> close to Trump, who warned that the GOP was \u201cimploding\u201d over Fuentes and engaged in a \u201cpower struggle\u201d to \u201ctry to hijack and redefine what MAGA is and should be post-Trump.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n While Loomer and Fuentes have publicly feuded in recent days over who had more sway with the president and his followers, she was unsparing in whom she blamed for the past week.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cTucker Carlson is a poison pill to the GOP,\u201d she told CNN in a text message. \u201cAnd he will cost the GOP elections in 2026 and 2028.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Florida<\/p>\n

\n Fuentes has suggested the past week has signaled his growing influence in today\u2019s Republican Party \u2014 especially with young men, a key force in Trump\u2019s electoral coalition last fall.\n <\/p>\n

\n After being cast to the edges of the conservative movement and getting banned from social media over offensive statements, Fuentes and his devoted listeners \u2014 whom he calls \u201cgroypers\u201d \u2014 are making their presence felt, he said. Fuentes\u2019 X account, reinstated by Elon Musk, now has 1 million followers.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe are thoroughly in the groyper war,\u201d Fuentes said on his web show last week as the fight unfolded. \u201cThe civil war for the GOP.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Last fall, Fuentes said he did not vote for Trump because the Republican nominee did not go far enough to push an America First agenda that\u2019s more in-line with his White nationalist views. Fuentes has said he wants to go back to the Middle Ages and a time when women couldn\u2019t vote and contraceptives and fornication were banned. He celebrated Afghanistan falling under control of the Taliban because they would \u201cban abortion, vaccines and gay marriage<\/a>.\u201d In his interview with Carlson, Fuentes expressed admiration for former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, a brutal dictator whose tyrannical reign resulted in millions of deaths from starvation and imprisonment in labor camps.\n <\/p>\n

\n At Heritage, the fallout continues. On Monday, Heritage Chief of Staff Ryan Neuhaus resigned, days after he reposted a comment on X urging internal critics of Heritage\u2019s defense of Carlson to leave the organization.\n <\/p>\n

\n On Tuesday, the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), the country\u2019s oldest pro-Israel advocacy group, announced it was withdrawing from the Heritage Foundation\u2019s Project Esther on Antisemitism, an initiative launched in 2024 to combat antisemitism. In a statement provided to CNN, ZOA said it would end its participation unless Roberts publicly apologizes, retracts his praise for Carlson, and \u201ccondemns and permanently ends his affiliation with Carlson.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n On Wednesday, at an all-staff meeting, Roberts acknowledged mishandling the controversy. According to an audio recording obtained by CNN, Roberts told Heritage employees, \u201cI made a mistake, and I let you down, and I let down this institution, and I\u2019m sorry, period, full stop.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Roberts also said during the meeting that he had no intention of resigning.\n <\/p>\n

\n Current and former staffers are also accusing Roberts of political opportunism, pointing to past statements they said contradict his current alignment with figures like Carlson.\n <\/p>\n

\n In tweets posted after the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol and later deleted, Roberts appeared to take aim at Trump and praised then-Vice President Mike Pence and Texas Rep. Chip Roy for their criticism of the president\u2019s effort to overturn the 2020 election.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cStorming the Capitol will do more to quash the need for real election reform than anything the Left has done and will do to prevent it. This is stupid, and real leaders would condemn immediately,\u201d Roberts wrote<\/a> in a since-deleted post.\n <\/p>\n

\n In another tweet<\/a>, he praised Roy, a Texas Republican who condemned Trump\u2019s false claims of election fraud on the House floor saying, \u201cthe president should never have spun up certain Americans to believe something that simply cannot be.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cTimes like these, however challenging, have, in American history, always \u2014 ALWAYS \u2014 produced the statesmen of our age. Amid this tumult, @chiproytx and @Mike_Pence are two of those men. From a grateful nation, thank you! #StandUpForAmerica,\u201d he wrote in the purged tweet, linking to a video of Roy\u2019s remarks.\n <\/p>\n