Popular conservative podcaster Brett Cooper went out of her way to avoid criticizing notorious white nationalist Nick Fuentes in a recent interview with NPR, saying that while she doesn’t “agree with Nick Fuentes on everything,” she still “doesn’t think I need to sit here and condemn anyone.”
Cooper repeatedly backtracked a month ago when asked whether Fuentes’ anti-Semitic and racist views were reprehensible, after she accused Texas Sen. Ted Cruz of being hypocritical for calling Fuentes a Nazi, prompting the Republican senator to fire back, calling Cooper an “angry lady.”
Cooper, a former Daily Wire star who recently joined Fox News as a paid contributor, gave an extensive interview to NPR’s Steve Inskeep this week in which she expressed her disagreement with President Donald Trump while insisting she “made her own decision” in expressing her views.
For example, she disagreed with the president’s recent statement that the United States needs high-skilled immigrants because Americans lack certain talents. “I think my viewers and people like me share my disappointment and concern,” the 24-year-old YouTuber told NPR. “That’s the worst thing a president can say.”
She also criticized Trump for repeatedly calling the affordability crisis a Democratic “hoax” and ignoring Americans’ concerns about rising costs, noting that she uses her show to reflect the thinking of young people.
Right-wing YouTuber Brett Cooper says she has no right to condemn Nick Fuentes’ hateful and racist comments and says Americans have the right to listen to anyone. (Youtube)
“I want my viewers to know that if you come to the Brett Cooper Show, there’s not going to be a senator in her ear saying, ‘Hey, these are my views, can you share them?'” she said. “But if I see something happen to X and Ted Cruz says something, I want to talk about it.”
Ultimately, Inskeep brought up the growing divisions within the U.S. conservative movement over Fuentes’s rising influence, which erupted and sparked a “Make America Great Again” “civil war” after former Fox News star Tucker Carlson conducted an extremely friendly interview with the leader of the “Groiper Army.”
After Carlson enthusiastically embraced Fuentes, a far-right firebrand angry at “organized Jewry” that controls the United States, the Heritage Foundation, a prominent conservative think tank, was thrown into disarray after its chairman defended Carlson’s platform against Fuentes. Cruz, meanwhile, is trying to exploit divisions within the right over Fuentes — who just this week declared Adolf Hitler “too cool” — to launch a future 2028 presidential bid.
Amid the conservative uproar over the meeting between Carlson and Fuentes, Cooper took aim at Cruz’s heated reaction, which included him condemning the former Fox star while calling Fuentes a Nazi.
“You’re doing this out of blind rage because you’re furious that the conservative base’s attitudes are rapidly changing and that Nick Fuentes is getting national attention,” Cooper reacted on her show last month, claiming Cruz was a hypocrite because he had previously lashed out at liberals for accusing conservatives of being Nazis.
Fuentes had previously criticized Cooper during her tenure at The Daily Wire, but she immediately celebrated her response to the Texas senator. “She took a break from celebrity gossip, took off her mask, and went all-in on the Red Pill. I admire her,” he declared, claiming she also “fumbled from the top rope” when she urged another Republican congressman to move to Israel.
Fuentes recently cheered Cooper for lashing out at Sen. Ted Cruz and other pro-Israel Republican lawmakers, saying she was “fumbling from the top rope.” (rumble)
In an interview with Inskeep, Cooper defended his stance on Fuentes, saying everyone has “the right to say whatever they want,” and that conservatives’ relentless criticism of far-right extremists as being responsible for the “Streisand effect” only draws more attention to him.
“What people on both sides of the aisle need to realize for Gen Z is that the more you tell our generation not to watch something, not to investigate something, not to listen to something, that something is bad, or to censor someone, we are going to look for that content,” Cooper insisted.
However, when pressed further on whether she agreed with Fuentes’ remarks and claims, Cooper seemed to object.
“You know, I don’t agree with everything Nick Fuentes says. I don’t agree with everything anyone says,” she asserted. “I think what older generations need to know about Nick Fuentes is, he’s said it himself, he’s an edgelord. What he says is intentionally inflammatory. He knows a lot of people are not going to agree with him… I honestly don’t care that much about that.”
Meanwhile, Inskeep pressed Cooper on Fuentes’ recent claim that “Jewish gangsters” are running the country, wondering if she agreed. “No, not really,” she replied, before adding: “I’m worried about the impact of Israel on our country. I think a lot of young people are worried.”
When asked why Fuentes has such a large following, Cooper went on to quote a “Zionist” friend of hers who allegedly told her Fuentes was “funny,” adding that the Holocaust-denying podcaster had become a “meme” for young Americans.
Finally, when asked by Cruz to choose between condemning Fuentes or engaging in his hateful rhetoric, Cooper said she was not qualified to tell Americans who to listen to.
“I don’t think I need to sit here and condemn anyone,” she concluded. “There are some things that Nick said that I don’t agree with. There are some things that Ted Cruz said that I don’t agree with. I’m not going to sit here and condemn any of them.”
