Trump assassination attempt shines light on Mark Robinson’s violent rhetoric

While many Republicans and Democrats have called on supporters to turn down the volume on political speeches, Robinson has frequently denounced his opponents as “evil” and “wicked,” and said in June that “some people need killing.”

Two weeks before a 20-year-old Republican in Pennsylvania tried to assassinate Donald Trump with an AR-15, Mark Robinson told a church group in North Carolina that “some people need killing.”

Robinson, the Republican nominee for North Carolina governor, was most certainly not referring to Trump in his speech, but he never made clear who exactly he thought deserved to die. 

When a CBS reporter last week asked Robinson at a public event to clarify his comments, Robinson told him he should be ashamed of himself. His press team said he was talking only about killing Nazis and the Japanese in World War II, and accused the news media and Democrats of taking his comments out of context.

But his full comments show that Robinson, who has a history of violent rhetoric against those he disagrees with, used World War II not as a history lesson, but as a model for how his supporters should respond to present day threats. And he has long made it clear who he sees as threats: abortion providers, public school teachers, and Democrats, all of whom, he often says, are plotting to turn the United States into a socialist prison. 

While many Republicans and Democrats reacted to the attempted Trump assassination with calls to turn down the volume on political speeches, Robinson has frequently denounced his opponents as “evil” and “wicked,” mocked mass-shooting victims and said that AR-15s were meant to be used against a government that had gotten “too big for its britches.”

In his June speech, Robinson told the congregation “we now find ourselves struggling with people who have evil intent.”

When dealing with “wicked people doing wicked things,” Robinson added, killing was not about vengeance.

“It’s a matter of necessity.”

Here is a look at Robinson’s call for more death and some of the other times he urged his supporters to fight against “evil” and the “wicked.”

Robinson’s ‘some people need killing’ speech

Speaking on June 30 at Lake Church in White Lake, N.C., Robinson again cited conspiracy theories and used violent language.

“Don’t you feel it slipping away?,” Robinson asked the crowd.

“The further we start sliding into making 1776 a distant memory and the tenets of socialism and communism start coming into clearer focus. They’re watching us. They’re listening to us. They’re tracking us. They get mad at you. They cancel you. They doxx you. They kick you off social media. They come in and close down your business,” he said.

“We need to start handling our business again,” he added.

“You know, there’s a time when we used to meet evil on the battlefield,” Robinson continued.

 “We didn’t argue and capitulate and talk about, ‘well, maybe we shouldn’t fight the Nazis that hard.’ No, they’re bad. Kill them!,” he said.

“Some liberal somewhere is going to say that sounds awful. Too bad. Get mad at me if you want to.”

The growing danger of political violence

Even before the assassination attempt on Trump, there’s been a long brewing concern over the prospect of political violence in the 2024 election. Threats against lawmakers and political assaults have surged in the last decade, especially among far-right extremists, nonpartisan reviews show. 

Michele Morrow, the Republican nominee to lead North Carolina’s public schools, has also called public schools “indoctrination centers” and, before she entered politics, called for the assassination of prominent Democrats, including President Joe Biden, former president Barack Obama, and Gov. Roy Cooper.

Trump has also used violent rhetoric, saying that there would be a “bloodbath” if he lost to President Biden again in November, and suggesting that former members of his administration should be executed for treason after criticizing him. 

Just before Memorial Day, a coalition of veterans groups delivered a letter to the state Republican convention calling on them to denounce Robinson’s and Trump’s violent rhetoric, and to commit to a peaceful election. The veterans were turned away.

When Democrats have tried to point out these comments as dangerous, Robinson, Trump and others claim Democrats are the ones using dangerous rhetoric. But President Biden and Attorney General Josh Stein, Robinson’s Democratic opponent, have never called for violence against their political opponents. 

Robinson’s history of targeting abortion supporters

Robinson often frames his speeches in Biblical terms, casting his opponents as enemies of God, especially when it comes to abortion. 

Abortion is murder, Robinson says, and the work of the devil. Abortion supporters are “witches.”

Women who have abortions for any reason, he has said, have blood on their hands.

• “I’m convinced that Margaret Sanger and all of her contemporaries that followed her, they were witches, all of ‘em,” Robinson said of the founder of the American birth control movement. “They were witches. I have no doubt. It would not shock me one bit if they were not satanists involved in witchcraft.”

• “Who else would come up with the solution, that the only solution to keep people from having unwanted pregnancies is to kill the unborn,” he added. “It’s an idea straight from the devil.”
• “You know, I ain’t supposed to say this, but I’m going to say it,” he said. “I don’t care whether you just got pregnant. I don’t care if you’re 24 hours pregnant. I don’t care if you’re 24 weeks pregnant. I don’t care. If you kill that young’un. It is murder. You got blood on your hands.”

Robinson’s attacks on LGBTQ North Carolinians

Robinson has called members of the LGBTQ community “filth” and “demonic,” and, in his 2022 memoir, said that transgender people are “wicked” and should not be allowed in the military or to fly planes. 

• “The ultimate authority to me as a grown man is God Almighty. Now when I start sitting down thinking, wait a minute now. Now I know the transgender movement is wicked. But I didn’t say nothing cause… well I wanted to get elected. So I’m gonna shut up and I ain’t gonna say nothing about that.”
• “If there’s a movement in this country that is demonic and that is full of spirit of the antichrist, it is the transgender movement.”

Criticizing public school teachers

Public school teachers are often frequent targets of Robinson’s. He accuses them of trying to indoctrinate children to vote for Democrats and turn the United States into a den of socialism.

“Imagine what they would do to those moms out there,” he said of public schools. Conservatives “are fighting for their children against these wicked school systems,” he said.

“Do not turn your children over to these wicked people,” he said another time of public school teachers. 

Robinson’s other targets

• Robinson also suggested that Nancy Pelosi’s husband had staged the 2022 assault he suffered at the hands of  a far-right Trump supporter who broke into the Pelosis’ home and beat him with a hammer. And Robinson called Nancy Pelosi, whom the rioters on Jan. 6th tried to hunt down, “evil” and with “the forked-tongue of a deadly serpent.” 
• The news media, Robinson said, was the “most evil demon in America”, and Hollywood, was “a homicidal satanic child molester.”
• A short list of the other people Robinson at some point has called “wicked”: Barack Obama, Alec Baldwin, Oprah Winfrey, and Alyssa Milano.

The full segment from Robinson’s speech

We now find ourselves struggling with people who have evil intent. You know, there’s a time when we used to meet evil on the battlefield, and guess what we did to it? We killed it! … When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, what did we do? We flew to Japan! And we killed the Japanese Army and Navy! … We didn’t argue and capitulate and talk about, well, maybe we shouldn’t fight the Nazis that hard. No, they’re bad. Kill them. Some liberal somewhere is going to say that sounds awful. Too bad. Get mad at me if you want to.

Some folks need killing! It’s time for somebody to say it. It’s not a matter of vengeance. It’s not a matter of being mean or spiteful. It’s a matter of necessity! When you have wicked people doing wicked things, torturing and murdering and raping. It’s time to call out, uh, those guys in green and go have them handled. Or those boys in blue and have them go handle it.…

We need to start handling our business again.… Don’t you feel it slipping away? … The further we start sliding into making 1776 a distant memory and the tenets of socialism and communism start coming into clearer focus. They’re watching us. They’re listening to us. They’re tracking us. They get mad at you. They cancel you. They dox you. They kick you off social media. They come in and close down your business. Folks, it’s happening … because we have forgotten who we are.