HuffPost: “The Unbelievably Bonkers Conspiracy Theorist Running For Governor Of North Carolina”

HuffPost: “The Unbelievably Bonkers Conspiracy Theorist Running For Governor Of North Carolina”

A new investigation from HuffPost reveals North Carolina Lt. Governor Mark Robinson’s affinity for fringe conspiracy theories to be much more extensive than previously reported.

In addition to casting doubt on the 1969 moon landing, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and multiple deadly mass shootings, Robinson, who openly admits to being a conspiracy theorist, has also engaged with social media posts promoting QAnon slogans, suggested that a 2018 series of pipe bomb threats targeting high-profile political figures and media organizations were a false-flag operation, and pushed antisemitic conspiracies about George Soros and the “new world order.” This comes as Robinson has already faced broad condemnation from across the political spectrum for his antisemitic rhetoric which has put Jewish North Carolinians on “high alert.”

Read more about “The Unbelievably Bonkers Conspiracy Theorist Running For Governor Of North Carolina”:

• Robinson, who is the state’s lieutenant governor, has said he “wouldn’t be surprised” if the 1969 moon landing was fake and the 9/11 terrorist attacks were an “inside job.” He’s “SERIOUSLY skeptical” of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination and of the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas. He falsely accused David Hogg, a survivor of the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, of being a paid actor. He’s claimed that climate change is based on “junk science.”
• In lesser-noticed social media posts, Robinson has said that news coverage of police shootings is part of a media conspiracy “designed to push US towards their new world order.” He and his wife both liked a since-deleted Facebook comment that stated, “WWG1WGA are my ‘Identity’ letters,” a reference to the QAnon rallying cry “Where we go one, we go all.” In October 2018, on a day when authorities intercepted pipe bombs intended for President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and CNN, Robinson suggested on Facebookthat they had done it to themselves. “If you can’t beat ’em, bomb yourself,” he wrote.
• Robinson is also a regular proponent of conspiracies claiming the music industry is being run by Satan and the Illuminati. He has called Beyoncé’s music “satanic” and described Jay-Z as “demonic” and sent by Satan to turn people away from Jesus. He suggested that the 2014 Boko Haram kidnapping of schoolgirls in Nigeria was orchestrated by billionaire Democratic philanthropist George Soros, a frequent target of antisemitic attacks by Republicans.
• This Republican state official has also routinelypushed the “New World Order” conspiracy theory, which involves forced depopulation programs, a secretive ruling class of reptiles and “elite globalists” on a satanic mission to bring about the “end times.”
• “I think this does bother people on the Republican side,” [Meredith College Political Scientist David] McLennan said of Robinson being a wild conspiracy theorist.
• [NC State Political Scientist Steven] Greene predicted that Robinson’s extremism will ultimately backfire on him, just as it did with the GOP’s gubernatorial nominee in 2020, Dan Forest.
• “Dan Forest’s problem, and the reason he lost, was because he was seen as too extreme of a social conservative. Mark Robinson is Forest on steroids,” Greene said.
• “We have seen ever since the elevation of Trump, Republican primary voters, again and again, time and time and time again, choosing the candidate who makes an awful general election candidate in a purple state,” he said. “My presumption is Mark Robinson will fall right into this pattern.”

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