Two members of the Heritage Foundation’s governing board resigned on Tuesday, in a sign of deepening turmoil at the conservative think tank after its president, Kevin D. Roberts, took the side of the conservative podcast host Tucker Carlson during a controversy over his friendly interview with an anti-Semite.
The members, Abby Spencer Moffat and Shane McCullar, announced their resignations in a statement sent to The New York Times. Another member of the group’s board, Robert P. George, a professor at Princeton University, resigned last month.
Ms. Spencer Moffat’s resignation is especially notable because she is chief executive of the Diana Davis Spencer Foundation, one of the Heritage Foundation’s major donors. The Diana Davis Spencer Foundation has given the think tank more than $12 million since 2019, according to a Times analysis of charity filings.
In late October, as other conservatives criticized Mr. Carlson for giving the anti-Semite Nick Fuentes a platform, Mr. Roberts posted a video on social media that fiercely took Mr. Carlson’s side. In that video, Mr. Roberts referred to Mr. Carlson’s critics as “the globalist class” and a “venomous coalition.” Many Republicans saw those phrases as coded references to Jews.
Ms. Spencer Moffat said in a statement that the think tank’s recent actions revealed “a drift from the principles that once defined its leadership.”
“When an institution hesitates to confront harmful ideas and allows lapses in judgment to stand, it forfeits the moral authority on which its influence depends,” her statement said.
Mr. McCullar, a real estate executive, said in a separate statement that he could not, “in good conscience, remain on a board that is unwilling to confront the lapses in judgment that have harmed its credibility, its culture and the conservative movement it once helped shape.”
“No institution that hesitates to condemn antisemitism and hatred — or that gives a platform to those who spread them — can credibly claim to uphold the vision that once made the Heritage Foundation the world’s most respected conservative think tank,” Mr. McCullar wrote.
The two statements were sent to The Times by an assistant to Ms. Spencer Moffat, who said the two declined to make any comment beyond their written statements.
The Heritage Foundation said in a statement that it was “grateful to Abby and Shane for their service to Heritage.”
Mr. Roberts, the Heritage Foundation’s president, apologized for that video, and blamed a subordinate for writing it. He has not taken the video down. Mr. Roberts told Heritage staff members that he had not realized the import of what he was saying, since he does not watch much news. “I consume a lot of sports,” he said.
David A. Fahrenthold is a Times investigative reporter writing about nonprofit organizations. He has been a reporter for two decades.
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