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One of the wisest things two of the conservative movement’s wisest men – Morton Blackwell and CHQ Chairman Richard A Viguerie – have regularly preached when Republican presidents go to staff up their administrations is “who you walk with tells me who you are.”
The point being of course that conservatives would quickly know whether – or not – the new administration would be conservative by the people with whom the new President chose to surround him or herself… and this aphorism applies to conservative leaders and media figures as well as presidents.
However, that bit of wisdom doesn’t quite fully capture the contagion spread by choosing to associate oneself with individuals who lack conservative values or quite frankly, virtues of any sort. That concept is better captured in the old folk saying, "if you lie down with dogs, you will get up with fleas."
Which causes us to wonder exactly what is going through the head of a (at least formerly conservative) thought-leader like Tucker Carlson when he hosts decidedly non-conservative, indeed anti-conservative figures like anti-Semites Nick Fuentes, Darryl Cooper and Dave Collum.
How Tucker Carlson justifies his inflammatory interview with Fuentes that was laced with antisemitism is beyond us. What’s more, Carlson said GOP supporters of Israel — including U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) — suffer from a “brain virus,” while Fuentes said the “big challenge” to unifying the country was “organized Jewry.”
Tucker has got to know that every time he hosts one of these vile creatures, he picks up their fleas. And the problem with fleas is that once you have them, you start spreading them around to others who wouldn’t dream of lying down with dogs like Fuentes, Cooper and Collum.
Thus, we conservatives find ourselves in the situation where Dr. Kevin Roberts, the leader of one of our most important institutions, the Heritage Foundation, has picked up Tucker Carlson’s fleas in an episode that threatens the organization’s influence and fundraising.
We’re not sure what prompted Dr. Roberts to issue a statement somewhat out of the blue affirming his and the organization’s support for Tucker Carlson.
Perhaps it was bad staff advice that prompted Dr. Roberts, in a video posted to X last Thursday, to denounce the “venomous coalition” that has criticized Carlson and said “their attempt to cancel him will fail,” though he didn’t specifically name anyone. He said Carlson remains a “close friend” of the organization and “always will be.”
Dr. Roberts added that “I disagree with and even abhor things that Nick Fuentes says, but canceling him is not the answer, either.”
Heritage, under Roberts’ leadership launched “Project Esther” to combat antisemitism, and he also said “Christians can critique the state of Israel without being antisemitic. And of course, antisemitism should be condemned.”
All true and reflective our view as well.
However, to many observers the phrase “venomous coalition” sounded a not so faint echo of Nick Fuentes’ “organized Jewry,” and how do you square condemning anti-Semitism in the abstract with the statement Tucker Carlson remains a “close friend” of the organization and “always will be”?
Does that mean there is no depravity in which Tucker and his guests can wallow that will cost him Dr. Roberts’ support?
We doubt Dr. Roberts, an altogether good and decent man, meant his statement to be taken literally. However, by so closely associating himself with Tucker Carlson he’s picked up the fleas Tucker has apparently intentionally gathered to himself by lying down with dogs like Fuentes, Cooper and Collum.
Kevin Roberts can – and should – weather this storm, but there’s a lesson for all conservative leaders in this episode.
As Senator Ted Cruz said in the aftermath of this fiasco, “if you say nothing when someone tells you that Adolf Hitler was cool, you are a coward and complicit in evil.” If we reach back in the history of our movement, the founding generation of the modern conservative movement led by William F. Buckley, Jr. made a concerted effort to purge racists from the movement. We should similarly rise to the occasion, call out evil when we see it, and purge anti-Semites from today’s conservative movement. I’m starting here by stating unequivocally, Tucker Carlson is a coward and complicit in evil for joining Nick Fuentes, Darryl Cooper and Dave Collum in their vile anti-Semitic theories and giving them a platform to spread them.
CHQ Editor George Rasley is an ordained Elder of the Presbyterian Church, a member of American MENSA and a member of Faith Leaders for America. He is a veteran of some 300 political campaigns and served on the White House, Senate and House staff.
- Tucker Carlson
- Nick Fuentes
- Darryl Cooper
- Dave Collum
- anti-Semitism
- Israel policy
- Mike Huckabee
- Trump administration
- Heritage Foundation
- Dr. Kevin Roberts
- Project Esther
- Marco Rubio
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