Prominent Scholar Robert P. George Resigns From Heritage Foundation Board Over Carlson Fiasco

Princeton University’s renowned jurisprudence professor Robert P. George announced on Monday that he is leaving the Heritage Foundation’s board, bringing an abrupt end to his long association with the influential conservative think tank.

George, a leading voice in conservative academia and a former chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, said he could no longer remain following a recent controversy surrounding Heritage President Kevin Roberts.

“I could not remain without a full retraction of the video released by Kevin Roberts, speaking for and in the name of Heritage, on Oct. 30,” he said, referring to Roberts’ defense of former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who has platformed and given softball interviews to a Holocaust denier and a neo Nazi on his show.

George noted that Roberts apologized but stopped short of fully retracting the message. “Although Kevin publicly apologized for some of what he said in the video, he could not offer a full retraction of its content,” he said. “So, we reached an impasse.”

Despite the disagreement, George stressed that he bears Roberts no ill will. He called him “a good man,” adding that Roberts “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,” he said.

The Princeton professor expressed sorrow over leaving the board and shared his hopes for the organization’s future direction. “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,” he said.

He continued with a broader moral appeal: “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,’” he said, quoting the Constitution.

George called that principle the “anchor” of both Heritage and the nation itself. “It must always be that creed,” he warned. “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.”

Ilya Shapiro of the Manhattan Institute, another conservative think tank, suggested that George’s departure reflects a deeper struggle inside Heritage. He said George led “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, or we will decline as a nation,” Shapiro said. “Sad.”