Mark Robinson has endorsed Donald Trump for president

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WASHINGTON

NC GOP gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson endorsed Donald Trump’s campaign for the White House on Friday, publicly supporting the former president as Trump tries to win back the Republican Partys presidential nomination.

Robinson chose a high-profile venue to make the endorsement, speaking from the stage of the Faith & Freedom Coalition conference in Washington, a gathering of religious conservatives from around the country.

The lieutenant governor, who himself faces a competitive primary, said the country needs a leader who is ready to go on the world stage walking boldly, waving the American flag loudly and saying the Americans are here and we are the manage again.

This country is at war, and we need a warrior at the helm, Robinson said, earning a loud ovation from the audience.

Calculating the Robinsons endorsement? Greeted by North Carolina Lt. Governor Mark Robinson supporters after announcing his candidacy for Governor of North Carolina on Saturday, April 22, 2023 at Ace Speedway in Elon, NC Robert Willett [email protected]

Robinson endorsed Trump among a slate of other GOP presidential candidates, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, US Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, former Vice President Mike Pence and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. Many of them, including Pence and Scott, also spoke from the same conference in Washington on Friday.

The Robinsons’ support appears to be a calculated move to align himself with Trump as the lieutenant governor seeks to win the support of the same Trump loyalists who made the former president the front-runner for the GOP’s presidential nomination in 2024. While it’s early, polls show Robinson as the frontrunner for the 2024 GOP nomination.

His endorsement also comes with a side favor: Trump has pledged to endorse Robinson in his bid for the state’s highest office at this months NC GOP convention in Greensboro. Robinson, the state’s first Black lieutenant governor, would make similar history if elected to the states’ top seat.

He quickly became one of the state’s most influential, and often controversial, voices in NC Republican politics for his views on social issues and current events ranging from race and sexuality to school shootings. Robinson offered a strong defense of those positions, including a belief that there are only two sexes, saying that his political opponents on the left were the real extremists.

Ordinary looks crazy to crazy. The face is the insane, Robinson said. So if they want to call me crazy, they want to call you crazy, let them call us that. I look crazy to you because you are crazy.

Law and order

Trump, who lost the 2020 presidential election, has repeatedly and baselessly asserted that he was cheated out of a second term, a claim courts have repeatedly rejected. However, Robinson did not address the rejection of Trump’s election, instead pointing to the dueling set of charges against the former president that he said are proof that America’s justice system has become like one run under Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany.

Law and order has broken down, and we have a two-tier justice system that has been weaponized against political enemies, just like during Hitler’s reign, Robinson said.

Trump is facing two sets of charges against him: In March, he was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury over allegations related to hush payments to an adult film actress. Earlier this month, federal prosecutors charged him with mishandling classified documents.

This story was originally published on June 23, 2023, 2:13 PM.

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Alex Roarty has written about the Democratic Party since joining McClatchy in 2017. He has been a Washington campaign reporter since 2010, after covering politics and state government in Pennsylvania during the second term of former Gov. Ed Rendels.

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