Under Fire for Tucker Carlson Remarks, Think Tank Chief Pleads Ignorance

Kevin D. Roberts is the president of the Heritage Foundation, a powerful think tank at the center of conservative politics. He makes more than $800,000 a year. He manages a budget of $100 million. He has a doctorate in history.

Now, he is trying to escape a gaffe that could derail his career. So he is asking allies to believe something at odds with his sophisticated credentials: He erred out of ignorance, because he does not follow current events.

“I actually don’t have time to consume a lot of news,” Mr. Roberts told staff members at the Heritage Foundation last week. “I consume a lot of sports.”

A few days before that, Mr. Roberts had appeared to throw the full weight of the Heritage Foundation onto one side of a bitter conservative family fight over the rise of the white nationalist Nick Fuentes. After the former Fox News host Tucker Carlson conducted a friendly interview with Mr. Fuentes, Mr. Roberts posted a video on social media that defended Mr. Carlson and called his critics “the globalist class” and a “venomous coalition.”

This controversy has thrown a new spotlight on Mr. Roberts, who took over the Heritage Foundation in 2021 and has recently remade the 52-year-old institution in Mr. Trump’s image.

Mr. Roberts has also appeared to remake himself, from the affable leader of a Catholic college into an activist who uses the ominous language of the far right. Last year, for instance, he said in a podcast interview: “We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.”

Mr. Fuentes leads a movement of so-called groypers, who oppose diversity and immigration and believe the United States was better off when Christian white men were in charge. On Oct. 27, Mr. Carlson posted an amicable interview he conducted with Mr. Fuentes, who said that “organized Jewry” undermined American cohesion.

The interview has been condemned by Republicans including Senators Ted Cruz of Texas, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

On Oct. 30, Mr. Roberts posted his video jumping to Mr. Carlson’s defense. Jewish Republicans objected not only to his support for Mr. Carlson, but also to the language he used to describe Mr. Carlson’s critics, like “globalist,” which could be seen as a coded reference to Jews.

In his meeting with staff, Mr. Roberts said those remarks had been written by his chief of staff, Ryan Neuhaus. “When the script was presented to me, I understood from our former colleague that it was approved,” he said.