Two more trustees have resigned from the board of The Heritage Foundation, deepening a growing internal rupture at the influential conservative think tank over its response to antisemitism and its leadership’s handling of far-right extremism.

Shane McCullar and Abby Spencer Moffat stepped down Tuesday, issuing sharply worded statements that accused Heritage of moral drift, institutional cowardice, and a failure to confront antisemitism at a moment when clarity and leadership were required. Their departures follow the earlier resignation of Robert P. George, a Princeton professor and one of the conservative movement’s most prominent elder statesmen, marking a rare and public revolt within the organization’s upper ranks.

McCullar, who said he joined the board at the urging of Heritage co-founder Ed Feulner to advance the ideals of the American Founding, said the organization had forfeited the credibility that once made it “the world’s most respected conservative think tank.”

“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” what it was, McCullar wrote. He said he could not remain on a board “unwilling to confront the lapses in judgment that have harmed its credibility, its culture, and the conservative movement it once helped shape.”

Moffat, whose family has long-standing ties to Heritage, echoed those concerns, saying the organization’s handling of recent controversies revealed a departure from its core principles.

“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,” she wrote, adding that she could not remain on a board “unwilling or unable to meet this moment with the clarity and courage it requires.”

The resignations stem from fallout over Heritage President Kevin Roberts’s response to a controversy earlier this fall, when Tucker Carlson conducted a friendly interview with Nick Fuentes, a well-known white nationalist and Holocaust denier. In response to criticism of Carlson, Roberts released a combative video defending the interview and attacking what he called a “venomous coalition” of critics. The video sparked backlash not only from liberals, but from conservatives across the ideological spectrum.

Roberts later apologized for parts of the video, but stopped short of a full retraction.

That partial walkback proved insufficient for George, who resigned from the board in November after concluding that Heritage’s leadership would not fully repudiate the episode. In a lengthy statement, George said the disagreement was not personal but moral, writing that the refusal to issue a complete retraction represented a fundamental break with the institution’s founding creed.

“The anchor for the Heritage Foundation, and for our Nation, and for every patriotic American is that creed,” George wrote, referring to the Declaration of Independence’s assertion of human equality. “If we abandon it, we sign the death certificate of republican government and ordered liberty.”

Heritage officials sought to project steadiness in response. Andy Olivastro, the foundation’s chief advancement officer, thanked McCullar and Moffat for their service and said the organization would continue advancing initiatives rooted in its “Four Cornerstones,” including national security and American heritage.

“Our mission is clear,” Olivastro said. “We exist to save the republic and secure it for future generations.”

But the loss of multiple high-profile trustees in rapid succession suggests that, for some longtime allies, Heritage’s claim to moral and intellectual leadership is now in doubt.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)