CNN reported that Mark Robinson, the Republican gubernatorial candidate in North Carolina, referred to himself as a “black NAZI” and expressed his support for reinstating slavery on a porn site’s message boards more than a decade ago.
Robinson, the state’s lieutenant governor and a staunch critic of transgenderism, discussed his fondness for transgender pornography and called himself a “perv” on the porn site “Nude Africa,” CNN reported.
Robinson reportedly referred to civil rights leader Martin Luther King as “Martin Lucifer Koon” — a “commie bastard,” a “huckster,” and worse “than a maggot.”
Donald Trump, the GOP candidate for president, enthusiastically endorsed Robinson in March. Trump called Robinson “an unbelievable lieutenant governor” and “better than Martin Luther King,” or, as he Trump put, “Martin Luther King on steroids.”
Trump campaigned Saturday afternoon in North Carolina, a battleground state important to his chances of winning the presidency. Robinson did not appear with the president and Trump did not refer to Robinson.
The Robinson scandal puts Trump in a familiar position – endorsing flawed candidates who then jeopardize winnable races and weaken the GOP chances of winning the presidency, the U.S. Senate, or the U.S. House of Representatives.
This frustrates party leaders like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who prefer, as he puts it, “quality” candidates – in other words, those who put loyalty to the GOP over loyalty to Trump.
Newspapers and GOP leaders are calling for Trump to drop his endorsement of Robinson.
Trump won’t do that — if the past is an indication.
He will either shun the embattled candidate, as he is currently doing with Robinson, or continue to enthusiastically endorse him.
Trump has endorsed a number of political candidates over the last several years who were then involved in scandals involving, among other things, sexual abuse, sexual assault and other transgressions.
In 2017, Trump endorsed Roy Moore for the U.S. Senate in Alabama amid accusations by a dozen women that he had pursued them for sex when he was in his 30s and they were below the age of consent. The Associated Press reported that one woman said that Moore “initiated sexual contact with her when she was 14.”
Trump ignored demands for Moore to withdraw from the race and continued to praise the former expelled state chief justice. Trump said Moore had his “full support.”
Democrat Doug Jones defeated Moore in the Senate election in beet-red state of Alabama.
Trump also enthusiastically endorsed North Carolina congressman Madison Cawthorn in 2022 after the state’s GOP had put their support behind a state senator in the party primary.
GOP officials and operatives said they had grown frustrated over the first-term congressman’s repeated driving and gun violations, his neglect of constituent services, his contempt for party elders, and his support of Trump in the former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 Presidential Election
Then there was the nude video of Cawthorn – and his claim that of cocaine parties and sex orgies among Washington DC politicians.
Trump endorsed Cawthorn.
“When Madison was first elected to Congress, he did a great job,” Trump said in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social. “Recently, he made some foolish mistakes, which I don’t believe he’ll make again. . . . let’s give Madison a second chance!”
Cawthorn lost in the GOP primary.
Trump endorsed for a U.S. Senate seat in Georgia former football player Herschel Walker, who had been repeatedly accused of physically abusing women, by, among others, his wife and a long-term girlfriend.
Walker lost the Senate race.
He also endorsed Sean Parnell in the GOP primary for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania after he had been accused of domestic abuse by his wife, and Charles Herbster the GOP primary for governor Nebraska after he had been accused of groping and forcibly kissing eight women.
Parnell and Herbster both lost their primaries.
Florida congressman Matt Gaetz, one of Trump’s closest supporters in Congress whom Trump has endorsed for re-election, is being investigated by a GOP-led committee for, among other things, “in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use.”
Trump once apologized – “on behalf of the country” – for the investigation of sexual misconduct by Gaetz and said the congressman would be cleared.
