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This is an adapted excerpt from the Sept. 19 episode of "All In with Chris Hayes."
Thursday was a big day for big stars in both the Democratic and Republican parties. Vice President Kamala Harris sat down with Oprah Winfrey for a highly produced, live campaign event in Michigan.
While Harris shared the stage with Winfrey, Republicans in another crucial swing state were positively freaking out. On Thursday at midnight, the deadline for candidates to withdraw from North Carolina’s gubernatorial election officially passed. That’s a big problem for some Republicans in the state, who may be wishing their candidate, Mark Robinson, was off the ticket.
Even by the standards of Donald Trump’s handpicked freaks and geeks, Robinson is a uniquely terrible candidate.
Even by the standards of Donald Trump’s handpicked freaks and geeks, Robinson is a uniquely terrible candidate. He’s got a history of rank antisemitism, along with a bunch of other bigoted statements. He’s made grotesque anti-abortion comments, accusing women of “not being responsible enough to keep your skirt down.” And just two weeks ago, he had to deny a report that he was once a five-night-a-week attendee at multiple porn shops where he often brought a pizza into a private booth with him.
All of that has been a known quantity but it seemed fine with Trump and his party. Yet, on Thursday afternoon, we started to hear chatter that Republicans, including members of the Trump campaign, had suddenly decided it was time for Robinson to go. Soon we learned why.
CNN dropped a report that Robinson “made a series of inflammatory comments on a pornography website’s message board more than a decade ago, in which he referred to himself as a ‘black NAZI!’ and expressed support for reinstating slavery.”
The report alleges Robinson made comments on a website called “Nude Africa” and signed up for an account on the site using his actual name. He used the same username and email address for other accounts on multiple other websites, according to the CNN report.
Along with reportedly saying he wants to own slaves and calling himself a Nazi, Robinson also “wrote that he preferred the former leader of Nazi Germany Adolf Hitler over the leadership in Washington during the administration of Barack Obama.”
“I’d take Hitler over any of the s--- that’s in Washington right now!” Robinson wrote, according to CNN.
Robinson also allegedly “graphically described his own sexual arousal as an adult from the memory of secretly ‘peeping’ on women in public gym showers as a 14-year-old. Robinson recounted the story as a memory he said he still “fantasized about.” The report also revealed archived messages in which Robinson admitted to watching transgender pornography and referred to himself as a "perv."
Now, consenting adults should be free to produce and consume transgender pornography, should they want to. But it does present a stark contrast with what Robinson says now about LGBTQ folks. In 2021, he told attendees at a church, “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.”
In an interview with CNN Thursday, Robinson denied any of the messages belonged to him.
But we should also note the report uncovered some very specific language used in the posts, “Uncommon phrases such as “gag a maggot,” “dunder head,” “I don’t give a frogs ass,” and “I don’t give two shakes of it” were used both by [the account] on Nude Africa and by Robinson on his personal Facebook page.”
Robinson also reportedly spoke admirably about the KKK and implied he would join, if the hate group allowed Black members, and made disparaging remarks about Martin Luther King Jr., calling him a racial slur and an “effing Commie bastard.”
That’s more than a bit ironic, considering that Trump has called Robinson, “Dr. Martin Luther King on steroids.” In fact, Trump has said a lot of nice things about the man who called himself a “Black Nazi” and reportedly praised Hitler, calling him a “friend” and a “star.” Trump also told North Carolinians to “cherish” Robinson “like fine wine.”
But it seems as though Trump might now be trying to distance himself from that “fine wine” of a candidate. According to the Carolina Journal — citing an anonymous source — Robinson is under pressure from staff and members of the Trump campaign to withdraw from the governor’s race. Robinson was also reportedly privately told he was “not welcome at rallies for Trump or vice presidential candidate JD Vance.” He was slated to speak at a Vance appearance on Wednesday but his office announced that Robinson had tested positive for Covid.
Trump has said a lot of nice things about the man who called himself a “Black Nazi.”
Right now, Robinson is way down in the polls, while the top of the ticket is locked in a tie in North Carolina. But, again, the deadline for him to withdraw had already passed. State law says a candidate can pull out of the race up until the day before absentee ballots start to go out for overseas service members. Those ballots go out Friday — and Robinson’s name is already on them.
According to Robinson, that doesn’t matter anyway, because he is not going anywhere.
“Let me reassure you, the things you see in that story, those are not the words of Mark Robinson…Clarence Thomas famously once said he was the victim of a high-tech lynching. Well, it looks like Mark Robinson is too…We are staying in this race. We are in it to win it. And we know with your help, we will,” Robinson said Thursday.
Now, let’s just take a step back here. Maybe Robinson is the most extreme version of the anti-social MAGA candidate ... but is he really that much more extreme than Vance? Who spreads dangerous, racist lies about Haitian residents of his home state?
And what about Trump? Who also bragged about peeping on women while they undressed? To say nothing of boasting of groping women and getting found liable for sexual abuse. The guy who broke bread at his home with a man who praised Hitler and an avowed white supremacist?
This is the Republican Party under Trump. So, I gotta say, North Carolina Republicans, there is no returning your candidate now. You broke it, you bought it. Mark Robinson is your guy.