Three members of the Heritage Foundation’s National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism have resigned after Heritage President Kevin Roberts defended Tucker Carlson’s interview with white nationalist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes.
Ian Speir and Rabbi Yaakov Menken announced Tuesday that they were leaving the task force, known as the NTFCA, joining Mark Goldfeder, who announced his resignation Sunday.
Also Tuesday, public policy expert Chris DeMuth resigned from the Heritage Foundation.
The resignations are fallout from Roberts’ defense of Carlson for his interview with Fuentes. Roberts described critics of Carlson and Fuentes as part of a “venomous coalition.”
“I cannot in good conscience stand with Heritage or continue on the task force under its current auspices,” Speir said in a post on X, adding he was considering staying on at the urging of the co-chairs of the task force.
“But then Roberts made his statement at Hillsdale last night. It is a strategic non-apology that doubles down on ‘loyalty’ to Tucker Carlson, muses about welcoming groypers and the groyper-curious into the movement, and continues to gaslight everyone about ‘cancellation’ when that clearly isn’t the issue,” he added.
NTFCA co-chair Luke Moon told Jewish Insider on Tuesday that the four task force leaders — Mario Bramnick, Victoria Coates, Ellie Cohanim, and himself — sent a letter to Roberts on Tuesday, demanding reforms, warning they would “take the NTFCA elsewhere” if their terms were not met.
Menken told Newsmax on Tuesday he was resigning over Roberts’ failure to condemn Carlson’s antisemitic rhetoric and advocacy.
“We are resigning from the Heritage Foundation’s National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, because [Kevin] Roberts is simply not apologizing for what he did,” Menken said.
In his resignation letter Sunday, Goldfeder said he could not continue to “serve under someone who thinks Nazis are worth debating.”
“Elevating [Fuentes] and then attacking those who object as somehow un-American or disloyal, in a video replete with antisemitic tropes and dog-whistles no less, is not the protection of free speech. It is moral collapse disguised as courage,” he wrote.
The NTFCA was announced in November 2023 by the Heritage Foundation in response to a rising wave of antisemitic incidents, particularly following the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel.
The task force was launched as part of a broader initiative called Project Esther, which outlines a national strategy to address antisemitism, including strengthening educational institutions, public safety, civil society, and legislative frameworks.
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