It’s been a bad month for the MAGA movement. While voters are rejecting candidates aligned with President Trump, MAGA leaders the are you They are debating with each other about how much anti-Semitic bigotry and extremism they should welcome into their movement. Not a great look.
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson at the center of controversy friendly interview With Nick Fuentes, a Hitler-loving, Stalin-admiring online personality who has built his following among alienated young white men with Daily Flow casteism, antisemitism, Hatred against womanhood, white Christian nationalism, threats of violence and the desire to replace American democracy fascist dictatorship,
Fuentes has been on a tour of right-wing podcasts, where the interviewers have allowed him to burnish his reputation and downplay his extremism. Carlson has been to wallow The far right has been in the throes of far-right fever since leaving Fox News, so it wasn’t much of a surprise that he became the latest person to help Fuentes reach a wider audience.
What was surprising was that Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, perhaps the most influential organization in the MAGA movement, felt compelled to do so. establish public safety After conservatives began criticizing Carlson’s softball interview with Fuentes.
Roberts didn’t just defend his friend behind the scenes. He recorded a video declaring that the conservative movement should not “cancel” Carlson or Fuentes. He vowed that Carlson, who has had a paid media relationship with Heritage, will “always” be a “close friend” of the think tank.
That was bad enough, but Roberts went even further, calling Carlson’s critics part of a “toxic coalition” and a “global class” in a classic anti-Semitic move.
Roberts’ video caused anger and uproar within the Heritage Foundation and among its supporters and political allies. this continues Despite his public and private apologies.
Roberts and Carlson are close. Roberts invited Carlson to be a featured speaker at a heritage event during last year’s Republican National Convention, at which Carlson told the audience They were in a “spiritual war” against those who wanted to “kill Christians.”
Carlsen has also been very big fan Vice President JD Vance – He encouraged Trump chose Vance as his running mate — and the feeling has been reciprocated. vanes invited Carlson went to the White House for an episode of The Charlie Kirk Show, which Vance hosted after Kirk was assassinated. Carlson’s son works for Vance.
As the future heir to the MAGA throne, Vance “will not avoid taking a position on”no enemy on the right” This stance that some in the movement demand, which Roberts appeared to be To hug in her video. This led some Heritage staffers to question whether this meant a conservative big tent couldn’t exclude people like Carlson or Fuentes.
Vance himself travels in shadowy circles, hanging out with Far-flung figures, some of them enemy of democracy and some fascinating ideas not yet From Fuentes.
vance recently downplay Racist and Nazi sentiments surfaced in leaked Telegram chats between a group of young Republican professionals. between bipartisan Violation Over the comments, Vance made fun of What he described as a joke between “children” and “young boys” involved “clutching pearls”.
But they were not children. most of them wereadultsbetween 24 and 35, and Vance was urging people to give him a pass, the way the Trump administration hasgiven a passTo officials who promote racism and conspiracy theories.
Most recently, Vance spoke at a Turning Point USA event. One questioner asked about American support for Israel, saying that “not only does their religion not agree with ours, but they also openly support prosecuting us.” vanes missed opportunity To challenge him.
Fuentes has been victorious in all this. HeclaimedThat Hermitage was becoming “a safe harbor and springboard for people sympathetic to me and Tucker” was a milestone in his effort for his followers – known as Gropers – to infiltrate the Republican Party and take over conservative institutions.
Pointing to Vance’s recent actions, Fuentesto bragThe vice president is caught in the “Groeper Squeeze” between his need to please Republican donors and his desire to avoid alienating Groepers, which Fuentes has vowed would vex Vance during the campaign.
This is a moment of the MAGA movement’s own making.
Since the beginning of his first presidential campaign, Trump has activated nativists, white nationalists, and Christian nationalists. He has encouraged radicals to express themselves proudly. He has invited them into his increasingly unpopular movement and administration, making the confrontation instigated by Fuentes, Carlson and Roberts impossible to avoid.
Meanwhile, Democratic candidates won across the country, building strong inclusive coalitions and uniting young people around a vision of an America that works for us all. This is where our future lies. Let’s make it!
Svante is the president of Myrickpeople for the american way,
