Lt. Governor Mark Robinson released a video Thursday calling the CNN report about his past online comments “tabloid trash.” (Screengrab from Robinson’s X feed)
The NAACP North Carolina State Conference is urging Lt. Governor Mark Robinson, the Republican gubernatorial nominee, to step down from his campaign for governor following a CNN investigation. Robinson, who would be the state’s first Black governor if elected, has said the report amounts to “salacious tabloid lies.”
While the online posts were made more than a decade ago, the NC NAACP is expressing strong disapproval following the report in which Robinson referred to himself as a “black NAZI,” a “perv” and said “slavery is not bad.”
President Deborah Dicks Maxwell said such beliefs are not only deeply troubling but have no place in North Carolina’s political discourse.
Deborah Dicks Maxwell is the first female President of the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP. (Courtesy photo)
“As North Carolina’s oldest and largest civil rights organization, NAACP North Carolina is dedicated to justice, equality, and dignity for all. While we are nonpartisan, we have a duty to speak out against views that threaten our progress.
Lt. Governor Mark Robinson’s rhetoric, rooted in hate, undermines the very values of civil rights and the dignity of our citizens. North Carolina deserves leadership that unites and uplifts, not one that divides. Robinson is unfit for office, and we call for his immediate withdrawal from the gubernatorial race.
NAACP North Carolina takes its role in advocating for the well-being and rights of marginalized communities seriously and will not stay silent when public figures promote hate or division,” said Maxwell in a written statement.
Joining Maxwell in that condemnation is Governor Roy Cooper.
Cooper, a Democrat who is term-limited, took to social media Thursday evening to say Republicans were well aware of Robinson’s character and questionable rhetoric and still backed him for governor.
“Donald Trump and NC GOP leaders embraced Mark Robinson for years knowing who he was and what he stood for including disrespect for women and inciting violence. They reap what they sow,” said Cooper on X/Twitter.
The North Carolina Republican Party issued its own statement late Thursday saying that Robinson has denied the allegations made by CNN “but that won’t stop the Left from trying to demonize him via personal attacks.”
The statement goes on to say, “the Left needs this election to be a personality contest, not a policy contest.”
Last December at a high-priced fundraiser at his Mar-A-Lago estate in Florida, former President Donald Trump offered his full endorsement of Robinson in his bid to become North Carolina’s next governor. At the time, Trump said Robinson was “better than Dr. Martin Luther King.”
It’s unclear if Robinson will appear on the stage with Trump when the former president campaigns in Wilmington on Saturday.