Charlie Kirk was a one-off, it seems. His assassination and the turning over of TPUSA to his wife Erika may prove that his legacy handoff is more than she is able to effectively manage. So much of what I saw at this week’s Am Fest triggered by Tucker Carlson (and Jack Posobiec’s cosplaying Jesus Christ Superstar while posting with a disgusting anti-Semite) undercuts -- indeed denigrates -- what Charlie and TPUSA once stood for. While Vice President J.D. Vance used his opportunity there to respond to groyper Nick Fuentes’ attacks on his charming wife Usha, he missed his opportunity to criticize Carlson, whose promotion of this disgusting man made him more prominent than he ever was or would be without the podcaster’s reach. (Maybe, because once upon a time Carlson’s favorable coverage was significant in putting Vance into the vice president’s office and he feels loyal to Tucker.)

This kind of divisive behavior by ambitious people during a leadership void is far from unusual. My own feeling is that TPUSA will continue on at college campuses but with far fewer fireworks than we saw at AmFest. Still, without more effective leadership at the top, its national reach will be far more limited. I think Candace Owens finally has limited her appeal to the insane, and Megyn Kelly to those lacking sense, sensibility, and memories longer than a nanosecond. Carlson, with his love notes to Qatar, a major funder of terrorism, is I think soon heading for a flameout.

The division he inspired at TPUSA has also affected the once formidable think tank, Heritage, whose head, Kevin Roberts, failed to take on Carlson regarding things that matter to the strongest supporters of the organization. Many donors and board members have fled, and this week, the staff departures reached DefCon levels. Over a dozen staffers and three board members left the organization -- and they were significant contributors to its work. Leadership from its legal, economic and data teams moved over to another conservative foundation headed by Mike Pence, Advancing American Freedom (AAF). 

Among the most prominent departures from Heritage are John Malcolm and Cully Stimson, who cited Roberts’ failure to condemn anti-Semitism and a drift from the organization’s key principles. Also among those who left are Hans von Spakovsky, a competent analyst of election fraud, and noted legal scholar Josh Blackman. 

Blackman’s departure letter to Roberts made his point clear: 

Heritage came to a crashing halt after your infamous video. Your initial remarks were indefensible. Your apology was underwhelming. And the lack of any meaningful followup over the past three months has been telling. For reasons only you know, you aligned the Heritage Foundation with the rising tide of antisemitism on the right. As Senator Ted Cruz observed, "this poison of antisemitism on the right... is spreading with young people." I agree with Ben Shapiro: "If Heritage Foundation wishes to retain its status as a leading thought institution in the conservative movement, it must act as ideological border control." Antisemitism is always the canary in the coalmine. History teaches us that any society that fails to protect its Jewish people is destined for despair.

I am not alone in recognizing how you wounded Heritage's moral standing. For more than a year, the Meese Center was planning a massive book signing at the Federalist Society National Convention. Heritage generously donated nearly 1,500 copies of the Guide, and everyone in attendance would have received a free copy. We arranged for nearly one-hundred contributors to autograph the book. Regrettably, your ill-timed remarks came only a few days before the Convention began. In short order, contributors told us that they could no longer autograph a book they already contributed to. The Heritage brand, once iconic, instantly became toxic. We made the difficult decision to cancel the book signing. This was a point of personal sadness, as John and I were so eager to celebrate the launch of this important work with the conservative legal movement. 

The fallout is even greater. Judges who have spoken at Heritage told me they would no longer affiliate with Heritage, and would no longer recommend their clerks attend the Clerkship Academy. Scholars who won prizes from Heritage told me they would no longer contribute to any Heritage publications. Public interest litigators have tweeted that they will no longer attend the Legal Strategy Forum.

The Heritage Foundation is greater than any single President. But one President has done what was once unthinkable. The Meese Center cannot survive under Heritage's current leadership, and the damage to the Meese Center brand has been irreparable. My only hope is that the important scholarship in the Heritage Guide can continue to be studied.

No, the departed staffers are not supporting a rumored Pence run for president by moving to his organization. Reportedly they will occupy a separate pod headed by former Attorney General Ed Meese (the Edwin Meese III Institute for Rule of Law) and will supply funding from their own donors.

Former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese III said in a statement that AAF will now be “the home for the new Edwin Meese III Institute for the Rule of Law,” headed by Malcolm. Stern will lead the Plymouth Institute for Free Enterprise at AAF, and Dayaratna will lead the Center for Statistical Modeling & Scientific Analysis at AAF.

All of this, as I said, is not an unusual development when important institutions age and fall into the hands of those incompetent to carry on its work. For those who pessimistically imagine Qatar, through Carlson, is somehow going to give the Democrats a leg up in the midterms -- I wouldn’t count on it.

The Democrats are broke and facing a cash crunch. Trump’s curtailment of funding to USAID, which channeled a lot of their grants back to the Left, certainly hurt. So did Kamala’s profligate spending and their troubles are mounting as the administration targets the fraudulent contributions from Act Blue to their coffers. Finally, growing interest and results in election integrity and the Supreme Court’s likely putting the kibosh on race-based remedies like majority-minority districts will shift the electoral map. These contretemps at TPUSA and Heritage are less significant than the Democrats’ legal and economic challenges.