Opinion | Mark Robinson shows GOP love for Trump-friendly Black conservatives - The Washington Post
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Why Trump and the Republican Party launched Mark Robinson into prominence.
By Eugene Robinson September 23, 2024 at 4:49 p.m. EDT
The union between former president Donald Trump and North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson might not be a marriage made in heaven — perhaps they got hitched somewhere else — but it is a committed relationship nonetheless.
Just listen to the way they bill and coo about each other. When he endorsed Robinson's bid for governor, Trump called him "Martin Luther King on steroids" and "Martin Luther King times two." And when Robinson addressed the Republican National Convention, he called Trump "the Braveheart of our time." Remember those words, now that Trump will likely pretend he never heard of the guy.
Robinson's campaign manager and three other political aides resigned over the weekend, following Thursday's jaw-dropping CNN report about vile and toxic comments Robinson allegedly posted years ago on a porn site. Among many other shocking sentiments, CNN said, Robinson declared "I'm a black NAZI!" and "Slavery is not bad. Some people need to be slaves." He referred to civil rights leader King, according to the report, as a "commie bastard" and "worse than a maggot."
There's anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim bigotry in the posts, too, along with considerable homophobia. And since these writings appeared on a porn site called Nude Africa, there are detailed and vivid sexual fantasies, including a boast of adultery.
Robinson (no relation to me, I hasten to say) has denied writing the posts, but he has produced no evidence to refute CNN's careful identification of him as the author. He has vowed to stay in the governor's race, despite the GOP's fear — and the Democratic Party's hope — that his toxicity will drag down the whole Republican ticket, giving Vice President Kamala Harris a better chance of winning a swing state that Trump sorely needs.
The state Republican Party issued a cautious statement of support for Robinson. One argument that the party could not make is that Robinson would never say such outrageous things — since radioactive rhetoric is his standard practice.
He has denied the Holocaust, writing on Facebook that "this foolishness about Hitler disarming MILLIONS of Jews and then marching them off to concentration camps is a bunch of hogwash." He said that abortion is "about killing the child because you weren't responsible enough to keep your skirt down," but then later admitted that his own wife had an abortion when she got pregnant by him before they were married. He attacked high school students who survived a school shooting, saying their campaign for stricter gun laws was a bid for fame.
How did such a person become a GOP rising star and the apple of Trump's eye? Robinson is not just a MAGA-style conservative. He is also a Black man.
This is hardly the first time Trump and the Republican Party have vaulted an inexperienced, unvetted African American into prominence — and then had reason to regret it. In 2022, the GOP should have had a decent chance of defeating Sen. Raphael G. Warnock (D-Ga.). But to run against him, the party nominated former football star Herschel Walker, who had no experience at all in politics or government — but who is African American and a long-standing Trump friend. What issues did Walker focus on? During one speech, he said this: "A werewolf can kill a vampire … So, I don't want to be a vampire anymore. I want to be a werewolf." He lost the race.
The GOP seems unable to resist the allure of a Trump-friendly Black conservative. Republicans seem to think that the very existence of such individuals rebuts the allegation that the party is, at best, indifferent to the concerns and aspirations of African Americans — or, at worst, simply racist.
Robinson is practically from central casting. He was employed at a furniture factory in 2018 when he attended a meeting of the Greensboro, N.C., City Council and stood up to give a fiery speech in favor of Second Amendment rights. Video of his performance went viral, and suddenly he was a public figure. The National Rifle Association invited him to speak at its national convention.
By the following year, he was running for lieutenant governor. In 2020, he narrowly won. And this year — with Trump's support — he won the GOP nomination for governor.
Even before the CNN revelations, polls showed Democrat Josh Stein with a clear lead over Robinson. But it is appalling that someone with Robinson's dearth of experience or character has even a long-shot chance of winning.
I guess it doesn't matter to Republicans that Robinson has filed for bankruptcy three times, or that he has been sued repeatedly for failing to pay his debts, or that he has gotten in trouble with the IRS for not paying his taxes. After all, so has Trump.
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