DL Open Thread: Friday, September 20, 2024

‘black NAZI!’ Still Running For Governor In North Carolina.  I’m calling it now–Harris wins NC:

Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson of North Carolina, the Republican nominee for governor with a long history of inflammatory and offensive remarks in the battleground state, on Thursday vowed to stay in the race as CNN reported that he had once called himself a “black NAZI!” and defended slavery on a pornographic forum.

In an 82-second video released before the CNN article had published, Mr. Robinson sought to undercut the report, which unearthed old comments that he had reportedly made on “Nude Africa,” a pornographic site with a message board.

Mr. Robinson, a social conservative who has been a strident opponent of transgender rights, also posted about how he enjoyed watching transgender pornography, according to CNN, describing himself as a “perv” who liked “tranny on girl porn.”

CNN said it had chosen to publish only some of Mr. Robinson’s messages, many of which were sexually explicit and graphic in nature. He made the comments between 2008 and 2012, according to the report.

To verify that Mr. Robinson was the poster behind the comments, CNN identified the username “minisoldr” as one Mr. Robinson used frequently online. In addition to matching biographical details, the report said, Mr. Robinson had listed his full name on the Nude Africa site along with an email address that he had used on various websites “for decades.”

Yesterday at midnight was the deadline for Robinson to pull out of the race.  He didn’t.  Q: Where do they find these people?  A: Donald Trump:

For years, Donald Trump has directly and indirectly foisted damaging candidates on the GOP, in ways that have obviously cost his party dearly — up to and probably including control of the Senate.

It’s not just his endorsements of several flawed statewide candidates who went on to badly underperform and lose key races; it’s also the ethos he’s created in the party. He’s placed a premium on owning the libs and devotion to Trump, and he’s devalued political bona fides. He has effectively encouraged his party to overlook a Trump-loyal candidate’s very obvious baggage, by dismissing it as lies from the liberal media or even viewing it as an asset.

This whole thing was also utterly predictable and potentially avoidable, but for Trump. Robinson has been saying highly controversial things for years, but he wound up getting only token opposition in the GOP primary. Trump helped grease the skids by signaling as far back as June 2023 that he would be supporting Robinson.

As much as that actual endorsement, though, it’s about Trump making Republicans believe they can win with candidates such as Robinson, despite all the evidence to the contrary in swing states in recent years. Robinson, a candidate who probably wouldn’t have stood a chance in a GOP primary a decade ago, wound up winning the primary by 46 points.

The irony here is that Trump this year has actually endorsed fewer obviously flawed candidates in key states, allowing some establishment-oriented Republicans to emerge from primaries.

But not everywhere. And now it’s throwing a wrench into his own race.