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Today, Explained

Republicans have a Nazi problem

12 Nov 2025

Transcription

Chapter 1: What recent events sparked the discussion about Republicans and Nazism?

0.689 - 14.674 Unknown

Only three weeks ago, after the Young Republicans' I Love Hitler group chat, we asked this question. Coming up, do the Republicans have a Nazi problem? Could have ended there, guys. But then Tucker Carlson interviewed Nick Fuentes.

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15.135 - 21.887 Noel King

I'm sorry I called you gay, by the way. Why aren't people married? Well, I mean, honestly, it's the women. It's the women.

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22.981 - 28.513 Unknown

Fuentes, a proud anti-Semite, said stuff that people thought Tucker would disavow. Tucker didn't.

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28.793 - 29.535 Noel King

You're a fan of Stalin's?

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Chapter 2: How did Tucker Carlson's interview with Nick Fuentes impact the conversation?

30.296 - 31.178 Noel King

I was an admirer.

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31.198 - 33.603 Unknown

Next up, the Heritage Foundation shit the bed.

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33.744 - 37.271 Noel King

Christians can critique the state of Israel without being anti-Semitic.

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37.351 - 42.863 Unknown

Vice President J.D. Just Kids Vance got weirdly quiet. Ben Shapiro got enraged. Chris Ruffo tried to spin it.

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42.843 - 54.163 Nick Fuentes

Nick Fuentes is not a Nazi. He's using the symbols of Nazism to drive controversy and then to increase his kind of attention and notoriety.

54.624 - 59.012 Unknown

Oh, OK. Coming up on Today Explained, yeah, Republicans have a Nazi problem.

60.207 - 82.617 Noel King

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Chapter 3: What was the reaction from the Heritage Foundation regarding the interview?

90.975 - 118.614 Noel King

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119.235 - 144.366 Noel King

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I'm Noelle King with Jonah Goldberg. Jonah writes at The Dispatch. He is famously a never-Trump Republican. He's a Reagan guy, but he remains plugged into conservative circles. So we asked him about the right-on-right violence that erupted after Tucker's interview and who is involved here.

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162.166 - 191.102 Jonah Goldberg

One is an institution, the Heritage Foundation, a storied think tank in Washington that's over a half century old. Second is the president of the Heritage Foundation, a guy named Kevin Roberts, who has moved it in a very populist, very Trump-aligned direction over the last few years. Illegal immigrants waving their country's flags in our city streets and they're not being arrested and sent home.

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191.964 - 192.685 Unknown

It's unacceptable.

193.006 - 209.197 Jonah Goldberg

And then there's Tucker Carlson, a guy I've known for more than 30 years, used to be a colleague at Fox, who after being fired from Fox has launched his own independent media thing on the web. and is doing strange things.

209.698 - 222.702 Noel King

It's always the obvious questions that are so vigorously discouraged. And one of the questions that's been the most discouraged over the past 30 years are what are those lines in the sky that you see trailing jets?

223.443 - 248.856 Jonah Goldberg

What is that? Some people call them chemtrails. And then lastly is this really horrible gargoyle of a human being named Nick Fuentes. Sorry, I just, I try very hard not to think about the guy. He's a leader of a group of mostly alienated, angry young men that in internet parlance or in social media parlance, people tend to call gripers.

248.836 - 262.898 Jonah Goldberg

He has made a real impact out there for saying the most horrendous things you can say in many respects. We are done with the Jewish oligarchy.

Chapter 4: Who is Nick Fuentes and what are his beliefs?

323.877 - 337.417 Noel King

Yeah. Well, and listen, I mean, and I appreciate you saying that because it's that's just the reality of the media environment we're in. So if you I don't expect you to know all my views. But I mean, as far as the Jews are concerned, I think that.

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337.437 - 362.99 Jonah Goldberg

And it was appalling. It is particularly appalling because we know that Tucker can ask hard questions. He can grill people. When he disagreed with Ted Cruz about the bombing of Iran, he barely let Ted get a word in edgewise and was constantly quizzing him to knock him off his game. We are commanded as Christians to support the government of Israel? We are commanded to support Israel.

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363.01 - 374.324 Jonah Goldberg

What does that mean, Israel? But when he talks to a guy who says he loves Stalin and Hitler and thinks women really want to be raped and all of these sorts of things, he's like, hmm, tell me more.

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374.724 - 375.646 Noel King

You're a fan of Stalin's?

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375.886 - 376.026

Mm-hmm.

376.006 - 384.868 Noel King

I was an admirer, but we don't need to go into that. Okay, let's get back. We'll circle back to that.

385.149 - 409.614 Jonah Goldberg

You know, sort of channeling his old Barbara Walters or something like that. And so a lot of people were very cross about this. The Heritage Foundation, which advertises with Tucker Carlson, Tucker is the keynote speaker at their 50th anniversary gala. The Heritage Foundation got a lot of grief for its association with Tucker. And so Kevin Roberts, came out and issued a video statement.

409.634 - 413.022 Jonah Goldberg

Nobody disputes that this video statement was a complete friggin' disaster.

413.403 - 424.009 Noel King

The Heritage Foundation didn't become the intellectual backbone of the conservative movement by canceling our own people or policing the consciences of Christians. And we won't start doing that now.

Chapter 5: What controversies surround Nick Fuentes and his statements?

689.932 - 715.939 Jonah Goldberg

a popular front right and historically popular fronts are this thing more common on the left which you know on the left that used to be no enemies to the left and it was like don't don't shoot inside the tent don't pick them you know so what if we have stalinists in our coalition we're trying to stop the bad guys right that's the argument that is being used on the right right now is that the right needs to become a popular front needs to be a big tent we need a

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715.919 - 742.199 Jonah Goldberg

groipers and groiper curious people to be part of our coalition because they bring youth and passion and energy and yada yada yada i think it's all nonsense um but it's also hypocritical because the very people like jd vance and others who are trying to make the Republican coalition a safer place for these people.

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742.82 - 771.23 Jonah Goldberg

Say that we have to purge the neocons from the conservative movement, that we don't want to hear from the zombie Reaganite crowd. They have no problem silencing and trying to cancel members of the coalition they consider to be rivals. They just use the language of inclusiveness for some of the worst people in the world because they think there's a political advantage to it.

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771.711 - 795.41 Jonah Goldberg

And so it's going to be a fight that is going to unfold for a while because Donald Trump either for actuarial or constitutional reasons, is not going to be around forever. And so people are already trying to figure out what the post-Trump right looks like. And this is one of these early skirmishes in that longer-term battle.

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804.965 - 805.005

So

807.382 - 844.206 Unknown

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Chapter 6: How does the right-wing media perceive the rise of Nick Fuentes?

1352.211 - 1374.582 David Gilbert

He has become incredibly more powerful and he knows it too. So he's able to leverage that to get people to pay attention to him. We saw obviously Tucker Carlson interviewed him recently, which is the most high profile interview he's had to date. We've seen figures like Alex Jones, Candace Owens, they've all had him on their podcasts and they have varying levels of arguments between themselves.

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1375.483 - 1390.143 David Gilbert

His main antagonist and the person he fought with most, of course, was Charlie Kirk, dating back to 2019 when They began what Fuentes labeled the Gruyper War, Gruyper being the name for the people who support Nick Fuentes.

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1390.544 - 1407.122 David Gilbert

So what he did then was when Charlie Kirk was going around to colleges speaking and debating with people, he would get his supporters to go there and question Charlie Kirk about his support for Israel, question him on immigration, question him on the things that Fuentes believed Charlie Kirk was not being supported.

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1407.102 - 1414.294 David Gilbert

questioned enough about and where he felt he could be attacked because he wasn't being, you know, conservative enough.

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1414.475 - 1430.342 Noel King

Some caller calls into the Charlie Kirk show and says, why won't you debate Nick Fuentes? He goes, I don't debate bad faith actors and trolls who blame the Jews for everything. Oh, yeah, you just debate communists, socialists, Democrats, the governor of California.

1430.322 - 1447.088 David Gilbert

He wasn't being America first enough. Tucker Carlson said that, you know, he was just talking to Nick Fuentes and that he doesn't necessarily agree with all the things he said. But at the same time, he's engaging with him. And I think for Fuentes, that is the win. That's what he wants. He wants people to be able to see him.

1448.51 - 1458.405 Unknown

Why do so many people who seem to disagree with him still invite him on, still talk to him? There is something I assume that they are getting as well. What is this about?

1458.588 - 1485.528 David Gilbert

Of course, I think people like Tucker Carlson are afraid of being left behind because they clearly understand that Fuentes has tapped into something. His audience is this young white male audience that is incredibly powerful and people don't want to miss out. So by Tucker Carlson interviewing him, that Tucker Carlson kind of gets a little bit of that aura that Fuentes projects to his supporters.

1486.109 - 1497.946 David Gilbert

So I think That's the main reason is that they know Fuentes will drive engagement. If you look at the numbers on Tucker's video, it's huge compared to the others that were posted, you know, for the last couple of weeks.

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