AP Photo/Chris Carlson
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R), the party’s nominee for governor in 2024, is slated to speak at the Republican National Convention this week despite swirling controversies around his inflammatory rhetoric.
Robinson made national headlines when he called for “killing” his fellow Americans during a wild June 30th speech in a small town church. The New Republic first reported on the speech, writing:
“Some folks need killing!” Robinson, the state’s lieutenant governor, shouted during a roughly half-hour-long speech in Lake Church in the tiny town of White Lake, in the southeast corner of the state. “It’s time for somebody to say it. It’s not a matter of vengeance. It’s not a matter of being mean or spiteful. It’s a matter of necessity!”
Robinson, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump ahead of the GOP primary vote, has made headlines in the past for homophobic rhetoric and for even quoting Hitler in a Facebook post about racial pride – a comment he later defended.
Notably, Robinson’s call for extrajudicial killings and his continued embrace by the national GOP comes amid heightened concerns over political violence following the assassination attempt on Trump over the weekend, in which a bullet grazed the former president’s ear.
Robinson will face Democrat Josh Stein, the state attorney general, in the general election to replace term-limited Governor Roy Cooper (D). Robinson’s run has resulted in an avalanche of headlines pointing out his past rhetoric.
“Hitler-quoting candidate wins North Carolina Republican gubernatorial primary,” read the Guardian’s headline, while Slate’s headline at the time read, “Whew, North Carolina’s Winning GOP Nominee for Governor Sure Has Said Some Things.”
“North Carolina Controversial Republican Mark Robinson Wins GOP Nod for Governor,” reported the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal.
In the past, Robinson has referred to members of the LGBTQQ community as “maggots,” called Michelle Obama a “he,” and deleted the Holocaust. The Advocate reported:
The conservative has also used his Facebook account to call reports of the Holocaust “hogwash” and deny the widely accepted fact that at least 6 million Jews were killed in Nazi Germany, according to local news outlet WRAL. The outlet also reported that Robinson went on a podcast hosted by an alleged cult leader in 2019 and endorsed the host’s remarks that Jewish bankers are one of the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,” next to Muslim people, China, and the CIA.
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