Candidate As Conspiracist, Racist, Homophobe, Anti-Abortion Zealot, In His Own Words
Trump has endorsed North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson for governor of North Carolina. Robinson, the most outlandish North Carolinian since the notoriously racist Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., won the GOP primary for governor by a margin of more than 45 percent over his rivals.
“This is Martin Luther King on steroids,” Trump told a crowd about Robinson. “I think you’re better than Martin Luther King. I think you are Martin Luther King times two.”
Here is a bit about Robinson, in his own words.
November 5, 2016, Twitter: “Jay-Z teaches our young men how to be foul mouthed thugs and his wife teaches our young women how to be hyper-sexual whores…..I guess y’all are okay with that and so is Hillary Clinton.”
April 9, 2015, Twitter: “How you gonna scream “black lives matter” if you done had 5 abortions?”
May 22, 2022: “We are called to be led by men. God sent women out … when they had to do their thing, but when it was time to face down Goliath, [He] sent David. Not Davita, David.” God “knew what he was doing when he made men big and hairy and ugly. It’s because you’re supposed to scare away predators, whether they’re in the woods or standing in front of your kids in elementary school.”
“My God tells me that when I face adversity that, number one, I am to stand up like a man! M-A-N!”
May 22, 2022: Too many people listen to the doctrine “of social justice instead of the doctrine of Jesus Christ” and “they will be on their way to Hell.”
March 2021: Anyone who reads to a child about transgenderism or homosexuality, is “doing it to twist that child’s mind” and is “just as much of a groomer as that person was down at that playground.”
LGBTQ people are “devil-worshipping child molesters,” and Planned Parenthood provides abortion services to do the “devils work, with liberals support, for the New World Order.”
June 2012: “There’s no reason anybody anywhere in America should be telling any child about transgenderism, homosexuality, any of that filth. And yes I called it filth. And if you don’t like that I called it filth, come see me and I’ll explain it to you.”
Robinson said that transgender people should “find a corner outside somewhere” if they need to use a public restroom.
October 21, 2017, Twitter: “I don’t believe the Moon Landing was faked and I don’t believe 9/11 was an ‘inside job’ but if I found both were true…I wouldn’t be surprised.”
June 25, 2017, Twitter: “Sad fact; The Church in America is an ineffective laughing stock because too many ‘pastors’ are looking up to the Hollywood and music industry demons who spit in God’s face and who work diligently to turn the eyes of the masses towards Satan and his wicked agenda.”
September 13, 2014, Twitter: “I have no intention of doing such, but if I beat up a woman police officer will I get charged with assault on an officer AND assault on a female?” #justwondering
October 7, 2016, Twitter: “People who take out their breast in public to feed their children uncovered are shameless attention hogs and I’m damned tired of seeing posts about it.”
May 2018: Robinson said Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby and Matt Lauer were unfairly targeted on “so-called sexual crimes” of sexual misconduct by a left wing conspiracy. The charges were lodged to create “a climate of fear” similar to the actions of Josef Stalin who “arrested some of his top generals and top leaders” and “threw them in gulags … So that the common man would be really afraid.”
“That is what the left is doing with the Harvey Weinsteins, the Bill Cosbys, the Matt Lauers. They have picked out of the elite group of people that have committed these so-called sexual crimes. It’s the same old communist Marxist playbook: Create a climate of fear to make people shut-up and do what you want them to do, and if you can’t shut them up, then you destroy and throw them in jail like they did with Cosby.”
Weinstein has been convicted of rape. Cosby has been the subject of at least 60 sexual misconduct and crime reports and was convicted of aggravated assault in 2018. Lauer was fired from his NBC job after allegations of sexual misconduct.
“The only ‘fact’ that has come out of this Bill Cosby story is that the Illuminati will destroy you if you piss them off.”
In January 2019, New York passed a law allowing abortion past 24 weeks in cases where a woman’s life was at risk or the fetus was non-viable. Robinson condemned all abortions as “child sacrifice” and said that then-Governor Andrew Cuomo’s beliefs were “truly from the pit of hell” and “Satan must be his muse.”
He also took aim at Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood.
“I’m convinced that Margaret Sanger and all of her contemporaries that followed her, they were witches, all of ’em. I have no doubt. It would not shock me one bit if they were not satanists involved in witchcraft.”
“Who else would come up with the solution, that the only solution to keep people from having unwanted pregnancies is to kill the unborn. It’s an idea straight from the devil.”
“I don’t care whether you just got pregnant. I don’t care if you’re 24 hours pregnant. I don’t care if you’re 24 weeks pregnant. I don’t care. If you kill that young’un. It is murder. You got blood on your hands.” Robinson said that women who receive abortions are murderers.
Robinson is against abortion at any time for any reason. He responded to questions about why rape or incest should not be exceptions.
“You know what that argument (abortion in cases of rape and incest) reminds me of? It reminds me of the argument about seatbelts. I can remember this as a young man when we were arguing whether or not we should be required to wear seatbelts or if we should wear seatbelts. I can always remember there would be one person who would say ‘what if I get stuck on the railroad tracks and my seatbelt won’t come off.’ Number one, if you are stuck on the train tracks, that is (Charles) Darwin, that’s not any of my concern, that is Darwin. I cannot help you.”
Robinson viciously mocked and attacked teenage survivors of the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., for their advocacy for gun control measures. In posts after the shooting, Robinson called the students “spoiled, angry, know it all CHILDREN,” “spoiled little bastards,” and “media prosti-tots.”
In one post on Facebook, Robinson shared a photo of several Stoneman Douglas students posing for photos, with the caption, “the look you get when you let the devil give you a ride on a river of blood to ’15 minutes of Fameville.’”
March 24, 2018: Robinson called then-18-year-old Parkland activist David Hogg a “commie stooge.”
“All of you who are comparing David Hogg and the rest of these media pros-ti-tots to the long dead National Socialist (Nazi) are missing the fact that they are actually agents of the MARXIST SOCIALIST (communist) who are ALIVE AND KICKING, and working in our government, media, and schools.”
Hogg was a student survivor of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, and helped lead several high-profile protests, marches, and boycotts, including the boycott of The Ingraham Angle.
April 2018, Twitter: Robinson shared several crying, laughing emojis in response to a post that blasted conservatives who mocked the survivors, writing that when children “got sassy,” adults needed to make sure the “CHILDREN knew their place.”
Robinson has often attacked left wing protesters, and defended the fatal shooting of four students by National Guardsmen at Kent State at a Vietnam War protest in May 1970, commonly known as the “Kent State Massacre.”
“The shooting that happened at Kent State now, I don’t know how much you know about that shooting at Kent State, but people have got to understand it. We have the constitutional right to peacefully assemble. Now peacefully assemble does not mean you could throw bricks at National Guardsmen, bust out windows and block traffic. Once you cross that line into violence and the disruption of public transportation and public services and start blocking the entrances of a federal building, you are no longer a protester.
“You are now a criminal and you need to be dealt with like a criminal. And we need some politicians in office in some of these cities that’s gonna let people know from the get-go, you go in the street and block traffic, if you block buildings, if you destroy property, you are going to be dealt with swiftly and harshly. We are not going to tolerate it.
”That is exactly the message that needs to go out to these people. You wanna apply for a permit to protest at the park, that’s fine, but it’s gonna be peaceful and you’re not going to bother anybody, and you’re not going to destroy anything. If you do, you will be dealt with harshly and swiftly.”
March 2023: Robinson harangued the “so-called” 1960s Civil Rights movement, including the historic Woolworth lunch counter sit-in protests in 1960 that originated in his hometown of Greensboro, N.C. He claimed the movement was a communist plot to “subvert capitalism” and was used “to subvert free choice and where you go to school and things like that.”
The Greensboro lunch counter protests were a “ridiculous premise” designed to pull “the rug out from underneath capitalism and free choice and the free market.”
March 2018: “You talk about the sit-in movement. We’re in a free market system. So we’ve got a place called Woolworth in Greensboro that won’t serve Blacks at the lunch counter. What do you do? You go down there and you sit at the lunch counter and you demand for these people to take your money. How crazy is that? That’s not what you do in a free market system. What you do in a free market system is you just say, ‘Hey guys, these guys don’t treat people fair. Do not eat here.’ A place where everybody can eat and let’s see who does the best. That’s what you do in a free market system. You don’t force these guys to take your — sit there and you know, ‘You’re gonna take my money. You’re gonna take my money. I’m gonna enrich you whether you like it or not.’”
“But it goes hand-in-hand with that whole thing of, uh, communists and socialists slowly pulling the rug out from underneath capitalism and free choice and the free market.”
In other comments, Robinson blamed the movement for destroying “hundreds of very well-run Black schools” and black businesses.
“The Civil Rights Movement destroyed hundreds of very well-run Black schools. They destroyed Black businesses across the nation. Once businesses became integrated right here in Greensboro, once Woolworth became integrated and the other cafeterias, white cafeterias became integrated, Black folks stopped going to the Black businesses. And they went out of business.
“And they went out of business because we start [sic] giving our dollars to people who didn’t want them to begin with or want them on their terms. If we had not listened to those communists and had put our dollars in our pockets and built up our society, we could have drawn well-meaning Whites to our side and run Woolworth out of business instead of the other way around.”
November 2018: Robinson said that former President Lydon B. Johnson’s “Great Society,” a series of policy initiatives to reform social welfare, was a way to keep Black Americans on a “de facto plantation” and keep “negroes” in their place.
“I believe that was the intention of Lyndon Johnson and all of his, uh, all of his cronies was to create a system that would keep Black folks in their place, keep them on a de facto plantation where they could not branch out and steadily ratchet up the pressure on them. Steadily bring the walls in on ’em. And it has been a concentrated effort ever since to make sure that Negroes stay in their place.”
January 2019: Robinson praised Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-Wis., the infamous red-baiting lawmaker who chaired hearings in the early 1950s on his bogus claims that communists had infiltrated the federal government, Hollywood and universities in order to subvert the United States. McCarthy was ultimately censured for refusing to cooperate with, and abusing members of, a congressional committee. Disgraced, McCarthy later died of alcoholism.
“Folks laughed at [Joseph] McCarthy back in the fifties when he was talking about communism invading these shores. But those folks were telling the truth. And now because people ignored that truth, those things have come back in spades. Folks didn’t believe [Joseph] McCarthy when he said our government was covered up with communists. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders is proof of that.”
Neither Ocasio-Cortez nor Sanders are communists; they are self-declared democratic socialists.
2017 Facebook post: “I am so sick of seeing and hearing people STILL talk about Nazis and Hitler and how evil and manipulative they were. NEWS FLASH PEOPLE, THE NAZIS (National Socialist) ARE GONE! We did away with them.”
2018 Facebook post: “The center and leftist leaning Weimar Republic put heavy gun ownership restrictions on German citizens long before the Nazis took power. This foolishness about Hitler disarming MILLIONS of Jews and then marching them off to concentration camps is a bunch of hogwash. Repeating that hogwash makes the conservative argument against the current attempts by liberal Marxist to push Unconstitutional gun control measures in this Nation look FOOLISH.”
September 2021: Speaking at a conference, Robinson said “As always, we thank our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. … It is because of my religion that I stand here today. It is because of Jesus Christ that I stand here today. If I lose my zeal for God, I will no longer stand in the place that he put me. You can’t continue to stand where God puts you without the God that puts you there. And so, we’re going to continue to mention him. As for this not being a Christian nation, yes, it is! If you don’t like it, I’ll buy your plane, train, or automobile ticket right up out of here.”
Robinson also said that officials could eliminate school shootings by having public schools teach that Jesus is the only way to salvation.
Robinson has argued that firearms are a divine gift to humanity.
May 5, 2022: Less than 24 hours after the racist mass shooting in Buffalo, N.Y., Robinson explained why he owns AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifles.
“I’ll tell anybody, I got them AR-15s at home and I like to go target shooting and all that. That’s not what they’re there for. I’m not ashamed to say it, I’m probably not supposed to say it, but I’m gonna say it anyway — I got them AR-15s in case the government gets too big for its britches. Cause I’m gonna fill the backside of them britches with some lead.
“God gave the garden slug a way to defend itself. Now, if God gave the garden slug a way to defend themselves, what makes you think he didn’t give man, who he created in his own image, a way to defend himself? Those AR-15s and Glock 9mms and .45 calibers; where do you think they came from? Who do you think inspired them? God knew the world he was putting us into, so he formed in our mind the ability for us to be able to defend ourselves from anybody who may threaten us.”
2013 Facebook post: Robinson said the slogan “white pride” was not racist and that “I am TIRED of blacks and mexicans running around shouting about being proud of their race. Note to liberals; I’ll accept ‘Gay Pride’ when you accept ‘White Pride.’”
June 2023: Robinson spoke at a conference hosted by the far right group, Moms for Liberty, and encouraged people to read the writings of several 20th century dictators.
“Here’s the thing….Whether you’re talking about Adolf Hitler, whether you’re talking about Chairman Mao, whether you’re talking about Stalin, whether you’re talking about Pol Pot, whether you’re talking about Castro in Cuba, or whether you’re talking about a dozen other despots all around the globe, it is time for us to get back and start reading some of those quotes.”
Robinson, 55, is the first African American to hold the office of lieutenant governor in North Carolina. He has promoted various far-right conspiracy theories, has engaged in Holocaust denial, and has impugned virtually every minority group on his Facebook page, which has more than 100,000 followers. He has attacked immigrants, members of the LGBT community, Jews, black people, Muslims and many more.
Robinson was born in Greensboro, N.C., the ninth of 10 children. He has said that his father was abusive and alcoholic, and that he and his family suffered from domestic violence. Robinson and his siblings lived in foster care for part of their childhood, before moving back in with their mother, who worked as a custodian.
Robinson served in the Army Reserve, later attending North Carolina A&T State University. He graduated from the University of North Carolina with a bachelor’s degree in history in December 2022.
On April 3, 2018, Robinson attended a meeting of the Greensboro City Council, to hear a debate on whether to cancel a gun show in the wake of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. Robinson spoke in favor of gun rights, and video of his speech went viral after it was shared on Facebook by Mark Walker. Afterwards, Robinson dropped out of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and left his job in furniture manufacturing to focus on public speaking engagements.
In 2019, Robinson entered the Republican primary in the election for lieutenant governor of North Carolina after the finance reporting period ended. He won the Republican nomination, and later was victorious in the general election.
Robinson’s 2020 campaign finance reports contained incomplete information on his campaign contributors including such questionable expenditures as $186 for medical bills and $2,840 for “campaign clothes and accessories.” Robinson’s campaign blamed “clerical errors.”
Robinson married Yolanda Hill in 1990. He identifies as an evangelical Christian and has preached at congregations including Trinity Baptist Church in Mooresville, N.C. In a 2012 social media post, Robinson acknowledged that in 1989, he paid for a woman that he impregnated to get an abortion. In 2022, Robinson said the woman in question was his eventual wife, Yolanda.
Robinson filed for bankruptcy in 1998, 1999 and 2003. He has been sued several times for nonpayment of debts. In 2012, Robinson’s landlord sued him for failure to pay around $2,000 in rent; the landlord filed for summary ejectment (eviction).
According to court records, Robinson did not pay seven years of federal income tax and had tax liens placed on him by the Internal Revenue Service as recently as 2012. Robinson said in 2020 that his issues with the IRS had been resolved.