Dan Bishop continues to stand by Mark Robinson despite reports of his pro-slavery, pro-Nazi posts

The Republican nominee for attorney general isn’t retracting his support for the embattled gubernatorial candidate. Bishop has in the past described Robinson as “groundbreaking” and “the most formidable candidate [he’s] ever seen in North Carolina.”

In the week since CNN reported that Republican Mark Robinson made a series of comments on a pornography message board between 2008 and 2012, including posts where he called himself a “black NAZI!,” expressed support for slavery, and seemed to lament being unable to join the Ku Klux Klan, many North Carolina Republicans have distanced themselves and tried to erase any trace of their support for him.

But not Dan Bishop, the Republican nominee for North Carolina Attorney General, who proudly endorsed Robinson’s campaign for governor in April 2023.

Bishop, who has called Robinson “groundbreaking” and described himself as a “very close friend” and “big fan” of Robinson’s, has instead sought to blame Democrats and the media for the revelations about Robinson’s posts (which Robinson himself has denied making).

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Republican Dan Bishop, who is running to be North Carolina’s next attorney general, has repeatedly heaped praise on Mark Robinson over the past 18 months. On Thursday, CNN reported that Robinson made a series of graphic comments on an adult message board between 2008 and 2012, including posts where he called himself a “black NAZI!,” expressed support for slavery, admitted to secretly watching women shower at a public gym when he was a young teen, and seemed to lament being unable to join the Ku Klux Klan. While Bishop’s positive remarks about Robinson came prior to the CNN story, they came after Robinson called abortion providers “butchers,” said he’d like to ban abortion without exceptions, and repeatedly attacked LGBTQ community members, immigrants, Jews, and Black people.

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Speaking at Donald Trump’s rally in Wilmington on Saturday, Bishop claimed, inaccurately, that hacking was required to obtain Robinson’s porn site posts.

“This week in North Carolina, Democrats suddenly abandoned their aversion to hack and dump, rolled out a meticulously timed and coordinated character assassination, and then moved immediately to smear by association,” Bishop said. “Their aim, they say, is to disgrace not just one but all Republican candidates, in the name of decency, they say.”

In a Monday post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Bishop again dodged the reporting surrounding Robinson.

“I’m focused on winning the Attorney General’s race,” Bishop wrote. “As a matter of law, any decisions about how to proceed in the Governor’s race rest solely with Mark and are between him and the people of North Carolina.”

Bishop has maintained his endorsement of Robinson, North Carolina’s current lieutenant governor, despite one damaging report after another. 

The Washington Post reported that the account on the pornography forum linked to Robinson also praised Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf as a “good read” and a “real eye-opener.” 

Robinson also reportedly rejected offers of IT help to investigate the sources of the posts he denies making, prompting several top campaign staffers to resign. This has left his campaign with only two spokespeople and a bodyguard left on staff. Half of Robinson’s staff in his lieutenant governor’s office have also reportedly resigned or plan to resign

Robinson continues to deny the allegations and announced Tuesday that he hired a law firm to investigate the CNN story.

Here’s what else you need to know about Bishop and Robinson’s relationship:

Bishop was a day one supporter of Robinson’s campaign

Shortly after Robinson launched his campaign on  April 22, 2023, Bishop posted his endorsement video of Robinson to Facebook. 

“He is without exception, the most formidable candidate I’ve ever seen in North Carolina,” Bishop said.

Bishop predicted that Robinson would be a “groundbreaking governor” and concluded by saying “I endorse his candidacy with everything I’ve got.”

Bishop said he wanted to be in Robinson’s “new majority”

After launching his campaign to be North Carolina’s next attorney general, Bishop declared that he wanted to be “part of Mark Robinson’s new majority.” 

But what would that “new majority” look like? 

Bishop and Robinson share similar policy stances on a host of issues, including abortion and LGBTQ rights. 

Robinson has focused much of his career attacking LGBTQ people, referring to them as “filth” and referring to transgender people as “demonic.” 

“The transgender movement in this country, if there’s a movement in this country that is demonic and that is full of the spirit of the antichrist, it is the transgender movement,” he said.

Bishop, meanwhile, authored North Carolina’s House Bill 2 in 2016, legislation that discriminated against transgender residents, forcing them to use the restroom based on their birth certificate. It ultimately cost the state job opportunities and billions of dollars in revenue from event cancellations, including the loss of the 2017 NBA All-Star Game.

Robinson and Bishop have also been in lockstep on their views about abortion rights.

On the day Roe v. Wade was overturned, Bishop celebrated the ruling in a press release, saying “Today, the Supreme Court scored the most foundational victory for life in decades.”

Years before Roe was overturned, Bishop also expressed support for an Alabama law that provided no exceptions for rape or incest. 

“I think it’s wrong to have an abortion in the case of rape or incest, just as it would be wrong to take the life of a child born to incest,” he said in 2019.

Robinson, who paid for his now-wife to have an abortion in 1989, has also made opposing abortion a key part of his platform as a political figure. 

He’s repeatedly said he supports a total abortion ban, without exceptions for rape, incest, or the life of the mother. Robinson has also referred to abortion as murder, slavery, and genocide; asserted that once a woman is pregnant “it’s not [her] body anymore”; described abortion providers as “butchers of humanity”; and referred to women who get abortions as murderers. 

“It’s about killing the child because you weren’t responsible enough to keep your skirt down or your pants up,” Robinson said in a 2019 Facebook Live video. ”And now instead of taking care of that child, you want to kill that child so your life can go on, being on easy street and you can keep running to the club every Friday night.” 

Robinson’s attacks on reproductive freedom aren’t just limited to abortion access. In a recently resurfaced video, Robinson can be seen attacking birth control during a 2022 church sermon.

“We love to tell our young women that we want to empower you,” Robinson said. Afterwards he placed his hand near his groin, and said women need to “get this under control.”

Later in the speech, Robinson railed against women having sex unless they want to have children.

“You don’t lay down act like you making a baby until you’re ready to have a baby,” Robinson said.

In all of Robinson’s attacks against reproductive rights, one thing is consistent: he doesn’t believe women should have control over their own bodies.

In 2021, Robinson stated this very thing. “It’s not her body anymore,” he said of pregnant women.

That’s the candidate that Dan Bishop endorsed last year — and has continued to stand by.