(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
Conservatives did not take well to the news that Robert George, a Princeton professor and widely respected right-wing elder, was resigning from The Heritage Foundation’s board on Monday.
George explained his reasons for stepping aside — which were connected to the video released by the think tank’s president, Kevin Roberts, reacting to Tucker Carlson’s friendly interview with Nick Fuentes last month — in a Facebook post that read:
I have resigned from the board of the Heritage Foundation. I could not remain without a full retraction of the video released by Kevin Roberts, speaking for and in the name of Heritage, on October 30th. Although Kevin publicly apologized for some of what he said in the video, he could not offer a full retraction of its content. So, we reached an impasse.Kevin is a good man. He made what he acknowledged was a serious mistake. Being human myself, I have plenty of experience in making mistakes. What divided us was a difference of opinion about what was required to rectify the mistake.I
’m sad to be leaving the Heritage board. I have great affection and esteem for Barb Gaby, who chairs the board, and my other board colleagues. I wish them and the Heritage Foundation the very best.My hope for Heritage is that it will be unbending and unflinching in its fidelity to its founding vision, upholding the moral principles of the Judeo-Christian tradition and the civic principles of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. I pray that Heritage’s research and advocacy will be guided by the conviction that each and every member of the human family, irrespective of race, ethnicity, religion, or anything else, as a creature fashioned in the very image of God, is “created equal” and “endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights.”The anchor for the Heritage Foundation, and for our Nation, and for every patriotic American is that creed. It must always be that creed. If we hold fast to it even when expediency counsels compromising it, we cannot go wrong. If we abandon it, we sign the death certificate of republican government and ordered liberty.
Online, many mourned the loss, taking it to be another sign of the institution’s decline.
“Robby George was the head of the ‘Kevin Roberts showed terrible judgment and there need to be consequences’ camp, which has apparently lost out to ‘everything is well, nothing to see here” camp. Heritage will now decline as an institution
“An organization that picks Tucker Carlson over Robert P. George isn’t one worth anyone’s support,” submitted The Washington Examiner‘s David Harsanyi.
Not the resignation I was hoping to see at @Heritage. Nothing but respect for @McCormickProf,” commented Bethany Mandel.
Below are more reactions to George’s exit:
— —
.