Kevin Roberts Talks Dobbs, Fighting the Left, and Future of Conservatism in First Media Appearances as Heritage President

Kevin Roberts Talks Dobbs, Fighting the Left, and Future of Conservatism in First Media Appearances as Heritage President

Dec 7, 2021 5 min read

WASHINGTON—Heritage President Kevin Roberts joined a number of national broadcast shows to discuss the pressing policy issues facing the country and the conservative movement, and the more aggressive role Heritage will play in defending our values and basic American liberties threatened by the left’s radical policy agenda. Watch and read highlights of his interviews below.


On Newsmax’s “Spicer & Company,” Roberts made it clearHeritage will continue its tradition of excellent research and policy work, but will also attack the new and rising challenges of the moment with vigor and determination:

“I also want people to understand that this is a new Heritage. It’s a Heritage that, while we will always be headquartered in Washington, D.C.—sort of the beachhead behind enemy lines, if you will—for the movement, that we’re going to spend a lot more time in state capitals and at the local level, all for the purpose of making sure that next hymnal that we write is one that the next president on our side is going to implement, just as President Trump did, just as President Reagan did. We look forward to that future.”

WATCH: Heritage Will Be a Watchdog, But Also a Bulldog, in Washington and Across the Country, 12/6/21

On Heritage’s historic lawsuit challenging President Joe Biden’s unlawful COVID-19 vaccine mandate, Roberts told Sinclair Broadcasting’s “The National Desk:”

“It’s truly unprecedented for The Heritage Foundation in its 48-year history to file a lawsuit, to be a plaintive, obviously defending our rights and our employees’ rights. What’s different about this is the historic—the truly unprecedented—nature of the Biden-Harris regime using OSHA as a cudgel against us and the very sacred relationship that employers have with their employees. As a result, we decided we were going to do something for the first time in our history and that’s file a lawsuit. We’re optimistic that we’re going to win, but we also wanted to make sure that we were part of the fight, not just for ourselves, but for everyone in America who’s facing this kind of ridiculous overreach of the federal government.”

WATCH: Biden-Harris Regime Is Trying to Take Away Our Rights -- Heritage Will Fight Back, 12/6/21

Roberts again addressed Heritage’s lawsuit against the COVID-19 vaccine mandate with Jordan and Jay Sekulow on “Sekulow:”

“The Heritage Foundation is going to stand up for itself, for our colleagues here and also for the whole movement. I mean, I don't have to tell the two of you, you're the experts here, that what the Biden-Harris administration is doing is not only unconstitutional. It is an unprecedented abuse of federal power. And I want everyone listening, watching, to know that every single day under my leadership at The Heritage Foundation, we will be on offense against federal overreach.

 

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“What we're also signaling is that there are so many threats coming down the pike from this administration if we don't stop this one. In other words, this is not merely about a six-month vaccine mandate or even the permanent implementation of it. It is about a federal administration that is willing to subsume state power.” 

WATCH: “The Heritage Foundation Is Going to Stand Up For Itself & The Conservative Movement”, 12/6/21

On “Breitbart News Saturday,” Roberts addressed his thoughts on the historic Dobbs v. Jackson case before the U.S. Supreme Court and how the conservative movement can effectively and holistically lead on pro-life issues again:

I'm convinced that Roe v. Wade is going to be overturned. And let's say that something just short of that happens, that the chief justice does his usual thing, which is to find some way to thread the needle in an improper or legal way. The point is, that's still going to be our project, right? That we will have made great progress in ending abortion on demand.

 

“The Heritage Foundation has been, as you said, one of the stalwarts of the movement, in particular, one of the stalwarts of the pro-life movement. And certainly under my leadership, considering that pro-life is No. 1 issue for me, we're going to be working on that. But what I'm also trying to do to sum up here, is to make sure that our understanding of what it means to be pro-life includes things like tackling the deterioration of the nuclear family. Tackling…the disaffectedness of Americans in communities that have been left behind by globalization. Those are the questions for the modern conservative movement and these are questions that I'm very passionate about, and I think The Heritage Foundation will continue to lead on.”

LISTEN: Kevin Roberts Talks Dobbs, Future of Conservative Movement on “Breitbart News Saturday”, 12/4/21

On air with Sebastian Gorka, Roberts also listed his top policy priorities for The Heritage Foundation in the coming months:

No. 1, education, and by that, I mean, if we in the conservative movement don't take advantage of the absolute frustration that Americans—including some of whom are apolitical—have with the indoctrination in our schools, we've missed the opportunity of a lifetime. … No. 2, Big Tech. It is past time, as you know from your experience, for our institutions, starting with The Heritage Foundation, to recognize that Big Tech is the enemy of the state, to name them as such, and to develop policy reforms as a result. We have the definitive set of solutions coming out in the next days that will describe that. And thirdly, China. I, like you, understand the threat that the Soviet Union was to freedom, to Americans, to people around the world. I'm a son of the 1980s. We have failed as a country to recognize and to name China as the same kind of enemy that the Soviet union was then, and Heritage is going to be leading the way there.” 

WATCH: Make No Mistake -- The Left Wants To Force Socialism on America | Kevin Roberts on "America First", 12/3/21