Mark Robinson Is ‘White Supremacy in Blackface’: Raphael Warnock

Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock called North Carolina Republican gubernatorial nominee Mark Robinson “white supremacy in blackface” after CNN reported that he had he made disturbing posts on a pornography website’s message board more than a decade ago.
The CNN report, published on Thursday, unearthed posts that it said Robinson left on the message board where he referred to himself as a “black NAZI” and slammed the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as a “commie bastard” and “worse than a maggot.”
The report also alleged that Robinson, North Carolina’s sitting lieutenant governor who would be the state’s first Black governor if elected, also expressed support for reinstating slavery.
Robinson denied the posts detailed in CNN’s report were his and insisted he would remain in the race. His campaign communications director blamed the report on Robinson’s Democratic opponent, Josh Stein, saying in a statement to Newsweek that everything Stein and Democrats say about Robinson “is either an outright lie or twisted so far out of context it might as well be.”
Newsweek has contacted Warnock’s office and Robinson’s campaign for comment via email outside of regular office hours.
In an appearance on MSNBC’s Inside with Jen Psaki on Sunday, Warnock, a Democrat who is pastor of the Atlanta church where King preached, said that Robinson is the “antithesis of everything” that King represented.
“I can tell you, as the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church where Martin Luther King Jr. served that Mark Robinson is no Martin Luther King Jr,” Warnock told Psaki.
“He is the antithesis of everything that Dr. King represented. He is white supremacy in blackface as he talks about his desire to bring slavery back. I mean, this talk is way beyond the pale…”
Warnock also said it is important for voters in North Carolina to be aware that Robinson has been endorsed by former president Donald Trump.
“I think that the people of North Carolina need to take note of the fact that this is Donald Trump’s candidate,” he said. “This is who he keeps pushing and encouraging. This is who he thinks should represent them.”
The Republican nominee has long praised Robinson—who has a history of controversies and making inflammatory comments—calling him “Martin Luther King on steroids.”
But Trump did not mention Robinson during a rally in North Carolina on Saturday. After CNN’s report was published, the Trump campaign issued a statement that didn’t name Robinson but said Trump “is focused on winning the White House and saving this country” and that battleground North Carolina is “a vital part of that plan.”
On MSNBC, Warnock said that it was not the first time that Trump has touted a Black candidate “who is unfit and unqualified to serve with the cynical notion that somehow the electorate will be confused about who this person represents,” referring to Trump’s backing of his Republican opponent, Herschel Walker, in his 2022 Senate race.
“The people of North Carolina deserve better,” Warnock added. “They’ve got real issues that they’re trying to address, and they’re going to see through Mark Robinson, just in the same way that the people of Georgia saw through my opponent.”
King’s son, Martin Luther King III, also condemned Robinson, saying his “praise for slavery, disparaging rhetoric, and grotesque characterization of my dad and his legacy are deeply worrisome for North Carolinians and all Americans who oppose racism and bigotry.”