ACTING GUV, and NOT antisemite. (Told ya this would be ‘special.’)
The ACTING governor asks that you PAY NO ATTENTION to his extensive social media history. (Or, for that matter, his family business.)
Finally, we all got a peek at this ‘special event’ that got teased to us so hot and heavy yesterday:
Serving temporarily as acting governor, North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson declared “North Carolina Solidarity With Israel Week” and a statewide day of prayer to support Israel amid its new conflict with Hamas. He also downplayed his previous statements viewed by Jews as antisemitic.
Robinson, during an event at the state legislature Thursday, said it’s important for the state to show as much support to Israel as possible, decrying an “unprovoked and unjustified invasion” by Hamas, a Palestinian militant group based in the Gaza Strip
Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper is in Japan for an economic development trip, meaning Robinson is the acting governor until Cooper is back in the state. He has previously said Robinson has no real authority to act as governor and dismissed Robinson’s announcement Thursday as a cynical publicity stunt meant to bolster his 2024 campaign for governor.
“It’s tragically ironic that someone with a long history of hate speech against Jewish people would take advantage of death and destruction in Israel for his own political purposes,” Cooper wrote on social media Thursday.
Robinson spent most of Thursday’s press conference defending his numerous past remarks downplaying Nazism, promoting conspiracy theories about Jewish control over finance and Hollywood, and making other statements that Jewish groups and others have criticized as antisemitic.
Robinson resisted calls to apologize for those past remarks, saying he’s not actually antisemitic.
“There have been some Facebook posts that were poorly worded on my part,” he said Thursday, adding that “There is no antisemitism standing here in front of you.”
Robinson is widely seen as the frontrunner to win the Republican Party’s nomination for governor next year. His likely Democratic opponent, Attorney General Josh Stein, is Jewish.
“Mark Robinson called the Holocaust ‘hogwash’ and now uses the slaughter of Israelis and Americans to perform a transparent political stunt,” said Kate Frauenfelder, a spokeswoman for Stein’s campaign. “This is as close as he should ever get to being governor.”
Robinson has flirted with Holocaust denial in the past. He called reports of the Holocaust “hogwash” in one Facebook post and, in another from 2017, implied that the widely accepted figure of 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis is false.
As recently as 2019, Robinson went on a podcast hosted by an alleged cult leader, where he endorsed the host’s conspiracy theory that Jewish bankers are one of the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,” along with Muslims, China and the CIA.
“That’s exactly right,” Robinson said. “It’s amazing to me, that we live in this age of information where you can go online and you can find all this information, and it’s not hidden from anybody.”[…]
*No kidding.* <Search Haymaker archives.> B-A-L-A-N-C-E-D <space>N-U-T-R-I-T-I-O-N.
MORE:
[…] On Thursday he said he wants to move on from his past statements.
“I’ve never been antisemitic,” Robinson said. “I’ve never had anything against the Jewish people.”[…]
I hope all of you passengers on the Robinson bandwagon appreciate this taste of what the general election will look like and sound like with your guy as the nominee for governor. Apology after apology for comments on social media and in YouTube-archived sermons and speeches.
Relations with the state’s Jewish community — and potential Jewish donors — are likely what led to this ‘special event.’
The left is keeping its powder dry for now — HOPING AND PRAYING that the NCGOP follows through with this. In addition to all of this antisemitism stuff, we’ll surely be hearing a lot about Balanced Nutrition AND something called Precious Beginnings.
At least you have a bona fide primary and at least four other choices to consider for governor.
The mystery event title will make the press dig into him even more; just because of the wording and waiting until Cooper is not around. The Lt. Governor has some foolish people advising him. Anyone with any sort of political skills would have advised otherwise. I had high hopes for him. Good thing is Dale is taking th plunge and talking issues.
Mark Robinson is a pompous ass that exemplifies the ultimate in hypocrisy and dishonesty. It should also be mentioned as often as possible that he paid for an abortion many years ago. I’d vote for a rock before I’d vote for this clown. The rock has more character.
Republicans ALWAYS proudly stand in solidarity with Israel.
The front runner for the GOP nomination for NC Governor is a Holocaust denier.
Make it make sense. Seriously, explain to me like I’m four.
Robinson’s past comments about the Holocaust should be enough to disqualify him from nomination for EITHER party. Holocaust deniers are some of the lowest forms of human beings on this planet. I don’t see how anyone can excuse his words and cast a vote for him under any circumstance.