The uproar over Tucker Carlson\u2019s interview with white nationalist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes has sparked yet another round of MAGA civil war talk.<\/p>\n
Full disclosure: I previously worked for Carlson at the Daily Caller, so I\u2019ve had a front-row seat for this ongoing battle for a long time now.<\/p>\n
In case you missed the latest: Carlson invited Fuentes onto his podcast. What followed wasn\u2019t an interview so much as a warm bubble bath of mutual validation \u2014 the kind of \u201cconversation\u201d that helps launder extremist ideas.<\/p>\n
Enter Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation \u2014 once the intellectual vanguard of conservatism, now something closer to an emotional support group for people who think President Reagan was too soft. Responding to whispers that Heritage might distance itself from Carlson, Roberts rushed out a video to reassure the faithful: Heritage will have no enemies to its right.<\/p>\n
Roberts disagreed with Fuentes (good for him) but insisted Heritage didn\u2019t become the top conservative think tank by<\/a> \u201ccanceling our own people or policing the consciences of Christians.\u201d He also called Carlson\u2019s critics a \u201cvenomous coalition<\/a>\u201d who \u201cserve someone else\u2019s agenda\u201d \u2014 which echoes one of the oldest antisemitic tropes in the book.<\/p>\n And then something surprising happened: People inside Heritage actually pushed back (a brave move, given Heritage\u2019s Orwellian \u201cone voice\u201d policy<\/a>). Some even<\/a> resigned<\/a>.<\/p>\n The broader right-wing commentariat weighed in, too. Ben Shapiro called Carlson an \u201cintellectual coward<\/a>.\u201d Ted Cruz made some noise<\/a>. The Wall Street Journal editorial board<\/a> huffed. And talk radio host Mark Levin criticized Fuentes and Carlson during a speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition<\/a>. For a brief moment, it looked like accountability was actually trending.<\/p>\n But \u2026 why this moment? Why now?<\/p>\n Keep in mind: Then-former President Trump dined with Fuentes in 2022 and wrongly claimed immigrants were eating pets in 2024. As president, he told the Proud Boys to \u201cstand back and stand by<\/a>\u201d in 2020. And of course he launched his political career by questioning President Obama\u2019s birth certificate. I could go on.<\/p>\n Despite all of this, Trump\u2019s grip on the conservative movement only grew firmer.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, right-wing antisemitism has metastasized on Trump\u2019s watch \u2014 despite his support for Israel.<\/p>\n Charlottesville, anyone?<\/p>\n The \u201calt-right\u201d has shed its \u201calt.\u201d They\u2019re just \u201cright\u201d now.<\/p>\n This is especially observable when it comes to young conservatives who came of age during the Trump era. Indeed, one Heritage staffer told the New York Post that<\/a> \u201ca growing number\u201d of Heritage interns \u201cactually agree\u201d with Fuentes.<\/p>\n And here\u2019s the irony: The same conservative media figures now sounding the alarm helped build the machine.<\/p>\n Take Levin. Fuentes recently admitted that it was Levin\u2019s radio show that first radicalized him<\/a>. \u201cHe planted the seed, at least,\u201d Fuentes told Carlson.<\/p>\n Likewise, aside from endorsing Trump in 2024, Shapiro made conspiracy theorist Candace Owens famous when his Daily Wire hired her to host a podcast on its platform after she became buddies with Kanye West and after she suggested the only problem with Adolf Hitler was that \u201che had dreams outside of Germany<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n So if these more mainstream Trumpers are horrified now, it\u2019s probably because they helped create monsters \u2014 and those monsters are now coming to devour their creators, as monsters always do.<\/p>\n Rest assured, though, this rot is not limited solely to antisemitism. In recent months, MAGA figures such as Vivek Ramaswamy, FBI Director Kash Patel and even Vice President JD Vance (who is married to an Indian American woman) have all been targets of racist abuse<\/a> online.<\/p>\n It\u2019s important to note that none of these folks are considered \u201cNever Trump\u201d or Reagan conservatives. They are Trump allies. The revolution devours itself. (First they came for the Never Trumpers.\u2026)<\/p>\n Again, this is far from the first skirmish in the MAGA civil war. But all of these internecine fights obscure the root cause of the problem: Trump. And yet, the orange emperor himself? Off-limits.<\/p>\n The fever won\u2019t break while Trump\u2019s still around, serving as a magnet for the worst people and cultivating the toxic ecosystem that made all of this right-wing racism possible, if not inevitable.<\/p>\n So by all means, conservatives: Condemn Carlson, denounce Fuentes and scold Heritage for failing to police the right and only punching left.<\/p>\n But as long as you avert your eyes from Trumpism, your righteous outrage is just theater \u2014 the political equivalent of aggressively mopping the floor while the pipes keep bursting.<\/p>\n Matt K. Lewis is the author of \u201cFilthy Rich Politicians<\/a>\u201d and \u201cToo Dumb to Fail<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Insights <\/p>\n L.A. Times Insights<\/a> delivers AI-generated analysis on Voices content to offer all points of view. Insights does not appear on any news articles. <\/p>\n Viewpoint This article generally aligns with a Left point of view. Learn more about this AI-generated analysis<\/a> Perspectives <\/p>\n The following AI-generated content is powered by Perplexity. The Los Angeles Times editorial staff does not create or edit the content.<\/p>\n Ideas expressed in the piece<\/p>\n The author details concerns about Tucker Carlson\u2019s podcast interview with white nationalist Nick Fuentes as an example of extremism being laundered into mainstream conservatism, arguing this represents a troubling normalization of radical ideology within the MAGA movement[1]<\/a>. According to the author, Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts\u2019s response was inadequate because Roberts defended Carlson while using rhetoric that echoes antisemitic tropes by suggesting critics pursue a hidden agenda, though the author notes that some Heritage staffers bravely pushed back against this position[1]<\/a>. The author highlights that prominent conservative figures including Ben Shapiro, Ted Cruz, Mark Levin, and the Wall Street Journal editorial board appropriately condemned both Carlson and Fuentes, demonstrating that meaningful accountability briefly emerged[1]<\/a>. The author contends that these condemning voices bear some responsibility for the extremist ecosystem they now critique, noting that Mark Levin\u2019s radio show reportedly radicalized Fuentes himself and that figures like Shapiro previously amplified conspiracy theorist Candace Owens through their media platforms[1]<\/a>. Most significantly, the author argues that Trump himself represents the root cause of this problem, citing his 2022 dinner with Fuentes, his 2020 comments to the Proud Boys, and his role in mainstream birther conspiracy theories as evidence of enabling extremism[1]<\/a>. The author emphasizes that right-wing antisemitism has metastasized during Trump\u2019s political dominance, with the \u201calt-right\u201d shedding its \u201calt\u201d prefix and becoming normalized, particularly among young conservatives who came of age during the Trump era[1]<\/a>. The author concludes that condemnation of Carlson and Fuentes remains ineffective unless conservatives address Trump\u2019s enabling role in cultivating the toxic ecosystem that made this extremism possible.<\/p>\n Different views on the topic<\/p>\n Conservative figures operating within the \u201cAmerica First\u201d camp, including Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, argue that the debate over Israel policy represents legitimate political disagreement rather than antisemitism or extremism, contending that no other country\u2019s interests should supersede American interests[1]<\/a>. According to this perspective, questioning U.S. funding to Israel reflects patriotic concern rather than bigotry, with Greene arguing that fellow Republicans mischaracterize policy criticism as hate speech to silence dissenting voices[1]<\/a>. Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon articulated this opposing view by criticizing Israel\u2019s territorial expansion and arguing that the United States never committed to supporting such policies, positioning this as a question of national interest rather than antisemitism[1]<\/a>. Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts defended Carlson by emphasizing that conservatives should not \u201ccancel our own people or police the consciences of Christians,\u201d framing concerns about extremism as an attempt to purge dissenting voices from the movement rather than as legitimate accountability[1]<\/a>. This opposing perspective views the controversy as driven by what Roberts characterized as a \u201cvenomous coalition\u201d attempting to impose ideological conformity and silence alternative viewpoints on U.S. foreign policy, particularly regarding Israel and America First priorities[1]<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The uproar over Tucker Carlson\u2019s interview with white nationalist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes has sparked yet another…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42463,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[28507,28502,1520,28503,48,52,51,28506,47,50,49,24359,28508,28505,28501,28504,592,6283,1519,28509,28500],"class_list":["post-42462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-ben-shapiro","tag-heritage-foundation","tag-interview","tag-kevin-roberts","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-levin","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-maga","tag-maga-civil-war-talk","tag-monster","tag-nick-fuentes","tag-only-problem","tag-people","tag-president","tag-trump","tag-trumpist","tag-tucker-carlson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}