Robinson and Trump are two peas in a pod

Ahead of Trump’s visit to Wilmington, NC today, Democrats are continuing to remind North Carolinians of the cozy relationship between the two candidates, including with new billboards in Wilmington, right outside Trump’s rally, highlighting Trump’s consistent praise and admiration of Robinson. 

A reminder: Trump has called Robinson “an outstanding person” and an “incredible gentleman.”

As Donald Trump prepares to campaign in North Carolina this weekend, DNC Spokesperson Kenny Palmer released the following statement: 

“As Donald Trump heads to Wilmington, NC today, the DNC is reminding North Carolinians that Donald Trump and Mark Robinson are two MAGA extremists cut from the same cloth. Both are anti-choice radicals, election deniers, and have a long and disturbing history of spewing hate. Make no mistake: Trump has embraced and tied himself to Robinson at every turn. Donald Trump and Mark Robinson are too extreme for Wilmington, and too extreme for North Carolina.”

Mark Robinson has appeared at numerous Trump rallies. 

WGHP:  “‘I love North Carolina,’ Trump said as he took the stage. ‘In 76 days we’re going to win this beautiful state.’ Numerous North Carolina sheriffs, along with Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, briefly joined Trump on stage, and he gave a shoutout to Addison McDowell, his endorsed candidate for North Carolina’s 6th Congressional District. Trump told the crowd that he and Robinson will win their races in the fall.”

Associated Press: “Donald Trump has endorsed North Carolina Lt. Gov Mark Robinson for governor, fulfilling a pledge the former president made several months ago. At a rally Saturday in Greensboro,  Trump compared Robinson, who is Black, to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the famed civil rights leader. Trump referred to Robinson as ‘Martin Luther King on steroids.’… Trump called Robinson, who also spoke at Saturday’s rally, an ‘incredible gentleman’ and ‘great, natural speaker.’ Trump recalled, with some imprecision, how Robinson rose to fame following a 2018 speech to the Greensboro City Council in support of gun rights and police that went viral.”

Like Trump, Robinson also has a long and shameful history of spewing hate and conspiracy theories. 

CNN: “‘I’m a black NAZI!’: NC GOP nominee for governor made dozens of disturbing comments on porn forum”

Charlotte Observer: “Robinson said he owns AR-15s, a type of semiautomatic assault rifle, so he can fight back ‘in case the government gets too big for its britches.’”

Robinson: “When the chips are down, when the FBI is knocking on my door, will I cower, will I comply, or will I stand up and fight? Folks, it’s time to stand up and fight.”

HuffPost: “Mark Robinson’s Bizarre Ramble: ‘I Absolutely Want To Go Back To The America Where Women Couldn’t Vote’”

Daily Beast: “God Doesn’t Want Women to Lead, Says N.C. Lieutenant Governor”

HuffPost: “The Unbelievably Bonkers Conspiracy Theorist Running For Governor Of North Carolina”

“North Carolina GOP gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson has said it himself: He’s a conspiracy theorist.

“Robinson, who is the state’s lieutenant governor, has said he ‘wouldn’t be surprised’ if the 1969 moon landing was fake and the 9/11 terrorist attacks were an ‘inside job.’ He’s ‘SERIOUSLY skeptical’ of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination and of the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas. He falsely accused David Hogg, a survivor of the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, of being a paid actor. He’s claimed that climate change is based on ‘junk science.’”

WRAL: “Robinson said this Sunday during a church service outside Charlotte that God created him specifically to fight against the push for LGBTQ rights and visibility, which he says is turning America into a ‘hellhole.’ ‘I was not crafted to be Mr. Nicey-Nice,’ Robinson said. ‘… God formed me because he knew there was going to be a time when God’s learning was going to be intolerable to the wicked. When children were going to be dragged down to go see the drag show. When pornography was going to be presented to our children in schools.’ Later on, he also slammed Christian churches that are accepting toward gay and lesbian people. ‘Makes me sick every time I see it — a church that flies that Rainbow flag, which is a direct spit in the face of God almighty,’ he said.”

Talking Points Memo: “In particular, the Black community has been a major target for Robinson. In various posts over the years he referred to Black people as ‘muddle headed negroes,’ ‘apes,’ and ‘a monkey.’ ‘February is Black History Month. I guess the shortest month of the year is all we need to learn about the separate but equal history of a people who have achieved so little,’ Robinson wrote in 2014.”

Jewish Insider: “Last fall, Raleigh’s News & Observer unearthed an interview in which Robinson spoke with a fringe pastor, Sean Moon, who claimed that the modern incarnation of the four horsemen of the apocalypse includes China, the CIA, Islam and the Rothschild family of ‘international bankers that rule every single national or federal reserve-type style of central bank in every single country.’ Rather than objecting to the blatantly antisemitic conspiracy theory, Robinson grunted along in agreement. ‘That’s exactly right,’ he said.”

HuffPost: “Top GOP Candidate For N.C. Governor Has A History Of Demeaning Successful Women.”

Robinson is running on an extreme MAGA education agenda, including  calling to eliminate the Department of Education, eliminate the state’s Board of Education, and reject funding for schools.

WUNC: “‘Beat them in a circle’: Robinson touts corporal punishment but won’t say if it belongs in schools”

Robinson: “The way to do this is to demand proficiency in reading, writing, and math in grades one through five. In those grades, we don’t need to be teaching social studies. We don’t need to be teaching science. We surely don’t need to be talking about equity and social justice. I’ll say it again: we need to be teaching kids how to read, how to write, and how to do mathematics. If I were totally in charge of education, that’s the course I would set in North Carolina.”

WRAL: “Robinson: ‘We don’t want’ federal education funds in NC”

“‘Honestly, come on. There should be no federal department of education,’ Robinson said.”

NC Newsline: “In his bid to become governor, Lt. Governor Robinson has supported an expansion of private school vouchers and advocated for eliminating the State Board of Education.”

Robinson continues to put the gun lobby over the safety of our children and even publicly berated mass shooting survivors. 

Charlotte Observer Editorial Board: “As mass shootings continue unabated, NC Lt. Gov. Robinson cozies up to gun lobby”

CNN: “[Robinson] mocked school shooting survivors and once justified shooting protesters”

“Robinson… has a long history of remarks viciously mocking and attacking teenage survivors of the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, 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.’ Robinson, whose political rise as a conservative Internet personality started when a clip of him speaking at a city council meeting in April 2018 went viral, as he was speaking against a proposal to cancel a local gun show after the Parkland shooting. He also began attacking the Parkland survivors after they launched the ‘March for Our Lives’ movement that called for new gun control measures, comparing the students to communists.”

News & Observer: “North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson delivered a fiery defense of gun ownership at the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting in Houston, vowing to continue fighting against supporters of stricter gun laws who he said want to disarm all Americans. … The NRA’s decision to move ahead with the three-day annual gathering as planned has come under intense scrutiny this week after a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday left 19 children and two teachers dead.”

While Trump continues his pursuit of repealing the Affordable Care Act, Robinson has railed against giving hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians access to health care by expanding Medicaid. 

News & Observer: “Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the presumed frontrunner for the GOP nomination for governor in 2024, has said he doesn’t think the state should expand Medicaid. In September 2022, Robinson told Business NC that he wasn’t in favor of expansion and hoped the effort to expand Medicaid failed, because he didn’t want health care in the state ‘to be turned over to the federal government.’”