Mark Robinson, the Trump-style candidate even Trump finds unpalatable – Technologist

LETTER FROM WASHINGTON

Donald Trump has a lot to say – often to the despair of his advisers, who dream of a more disciplined campaign. But sometimes his silences say more than his words. On September 21, the Republican presidential candidate was at a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina. As is customary on the campaign trail, he paid tribute to numerous local Republican officials and elected representatives in front of his supporters. However, the former president left out one particular name, a name that was on front pages across the American press: Mark Robinson. The man who Trump had described in early March as “Martin Luther King on steroids”.

Two days earlier, CNN had revealed a scandal concerning the Republican candidate for governor in this pivotal state. For several years, between 2008 and 2012, Robinson had frequently visited the forum of a pornographic site called Nude Africa. His sexual awakening, he explained on this forum, dated back to when he was 14 and spying on women in the showers of a gym. He also boasted of being a “black Nazi” and presented himself as a fan of videos of transgender sex. “And yeah I’m a perv too!” he added. In February, during the Republican primaries, Robinson had made transphobic remarks, saying: “If you’re a man on Friday night, and all of a sudden Saturday, you feel like a woman, and you want to go in the women’s bathroom in the mall, you will be arrested, or whatever we gotta do to you.”

Bringing back slavery

In another incident uncovered by CNN, Robinson had made it clear (under a pseudonym), during Barack Obama’s presidency, that he would prefer Hitler to lead the country. He also wrote: “Slavery is not bad. Some people need to be slaves. I wish they would bring it back. I would certainly buy a few.” In a video released ahead of the revelations by CNN, Robinson denied being the author of these messages, which were nevertheless corroborated by the network and have since been deleted. He equated himself with Black conservative US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, accused of sexual harassment at the time of his confirmation hearing in 1991. “Clarence Thomas famously once said he was the victim of high-tech lynching. Well, it looks like Mark Robinson is too,” claimed Robinson.

For many years, Robinson has publicly defamed and attacked women, Muslims, Jews and the LGBTQ community. Defending a patriarchal and reactionary vision of society, he enjoys making provocations, with an outspokenness unheard of among traditional politicians. Called an “incredible lieutenant governor” by Trump, he prevailed in the Republican primaries despite his known misconduct. In fact, it was partly thanks to his outrageousness that MAGA (Make America Great Again) activists selected him, provoking the frustration of party leaders who foresaw his fate in the election. During the November 2022 midterm elections, other extremist or inflammatory candidates endorsed by Trump were soundly defeated, such as Blake Masters in Arizona and Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania.

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