North Carolina gubernatorial candidate who said black Americans owe America reparations and endorsed him as ‘Martin Luther King on steroids’ is GOP nominee

Former President Donald Trump has endorsed North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson within the state’s governor’s race, comparing the black Republican candidate to “Martin Luther King on steroids” despite Robinson’s history of controversial statements about gender, race and sexuality.

Robinson, who won the gubernatorial primary on Tuesday, March 5, is now scheduled to face North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein.

“This is Martin Luther King on steroids,” Trump said Saturday while speaking at a rally during a pre-Super Tuesday event in Greensboro, North Carolina. “I told that to Mark. I said, I believe you are higher than Martin Luther King. “I think you’re Martin Luther King times two,” Trump told the gang before Tuesday’s primary election.

According to video of the event, Trump repeated his comparison of Robinson to the late civil rights leader, whom he first mentioned during a gathering at his Mar-a-Lago resort in December.

“First of all, it was a vote,” Trump said of Robinson on the time. “And then I said, ‘You know what, I swear, I think you’re better than Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'”

Robinson, who is also a pastor, endorsed Trump’s candidacy in June on the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference in Washington

Robinson, the GOP’s leading candidate to change into North Carolina’s next governor, has previously faced criticism for a series of hurtful comments about women, Muslims, Jews, homosexuality and victims of sexual abuse. He also fought against the teaching of critical race theory in state schools and said children should find out about Adolf Hitler and other dictators.

Robinson mocked school shooting survivors who support gun control. He also once announced that African Americans owed reparations for his or her freedom from slavery.

“Several people have talked about reparations in this country,” Robinson said during a speech on the 2021 North Carolina Republican State Convention, “and I remember how offended I made this particular liberal because I told them — to their faces — that nobody is yours nothing accountable for slavery

Critics also cite his use of anti-Semitic stereotypes and promotion of Holocaust denial, but late last yr Robinson tried to distance himself from the controversy he had caused.

“There have been some Facebook posts that were poorly worded on my part,” he told the state Legislature in October. “There is no anti-Semitism in front of you.”

The Trump campaign released a press release calling Robinson “a great American who is highly respected by the people of North Carolina.” According to NBC News.

“The mainstream media’s attacks on African Americans who support President Trump are old and exhausting,” the statement said, “but we expect them to intensify as polls show more and more Black Americans are choosing to support Trump over Biden.”

Trump’s recent comments have raised questions on whether the previous president intentionally includes racial references in his speeches, as Trump is known for using innuendos and dog whistles as a political tool to rile up his MAGA base.

Earlier, Trump delivered a speech at a campaign rally in Waterford Township, Michigan, where he turned the “N-word” into small speak about political enemies and his ongoing legal problems.

Days later, Trump delivered a controversial speech before the Black Conservative Federation’s annual gala in South Carolina, which Democrats later criticized as pandering to the Black community.

During the speech, Trump called President Joe Biden a “very nasty and angry racist” and then caused a fair larger firestorm by suggesting that a photograph taken during his arrest in Fulton County, Georgia, last summer had boosted his popularity amongst black voters.

“I have been accused of nothing, something that is nothing,” Trump told an audience of black conservatives. “I was accused a second, third and fourth time, and many people said that’s why black people liked me, because they had been hurt so badly and discriminated against, and in fact they saw me as discriminated against.”

Trump claimed that Black people, greater than every other racial group in America, have embraced the mug shot due to their shared experiences of discrimination.

“My mugshot, all of us saw it, and you recognize who took it greater than anyone else? Black population. You know, you see Black people walking around with my picture. They make T-shirts and sell them for $19 each. It’s truly amazing – hundreds of thousands, by the best way.

Trump has also stepped up his attacks on Biden in recent weeks as he tries to make progress with Black voters, while Biden has faced the challenges of re-establishing himself amongst voters who have fallen into apathy since his 2020 election.

Since then, Biden has faced increasing criticism from progressives who said the incumbent president was losing significant support amongst black voters.

Republicans expect Trump to do higher with black voters in November than he did within the 2020 election, pointing to Biden’s declining poll numbers.

Polls ahead of the state’s Democratic primary earlier this month showed voters growing increasingly reluctant toward Biden’s policies, with the president’s lead declining amongst voters under 30 and amongst Latino voters, and 22 percent amongst black voters. voters said they planned to support the Republican candidate in the subsequent election.

Trump believes he has the upper hand on issues such as the economy and record numbers of migrants flowing into the U.S. from Mexico, a lot of whom are being relocated to cities with significant black populations.

In recent years, Black voters have witnessed a shift, particularly amongst Black men who increasingly trust the GOP to deal with concerns about their ability to construct generational wealth, while a growing variety of Black Americans harbor a growing sense of disillusionment with Democrats who have failed to deal with persistent issues affecting the Black community.