White House calls Lt. Gov. Robinson’s comments on shooting survivors ‘grotesque’
With North Carolina’s 2024 governor’s race already begun, the White House has responded to the latest controversial comments unearthed from Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the Republican frontrunner for governor, calling them “undignified and grotesque.”
CNN revealed 2018 comments by Robinson about students who survived the Parkland, Florida, mass school shooting and spoke out against gun violence. That same year, Robinson rose to fame in a viral video of him promoting gun rights at a Greensboro City Council meeting.
On Facebook, CNN reported, Robinson called the former Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students “spoiled, angry, know it all CHILDREN,” “spoiled little bastards,” and “media prosti-tots.”
“Let me see if I have this correct,” Robinson wrote in a public Facebook post on his personal page in 2018. “A spoiled, angry, disobedient CHILD shot and killed 17 of his classmates, and now spoiled, angry, know it all CHILDREN are trying to tell law abiding ADULTS that we must give up our Constitutional RIGHT to own certain weapons.”
It’s the latest in a continuing stream of Robinson comments, many from before he took office, against anti-gun violence advocates, people who are LGBTQ, and recently, even the husband of former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
After the latest comments aired on CNN, the Biden administration responded.
“Gun crime is now the leading killer of American children,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates told McClatchy in a statement Friday. “There’s a deep urgency for leaders in both parties to take a stand against this horrifying violence with common sense steps to keep weapons of war off our streets and out of our schools.”
“Not only do these backward views side with the profits of the gun lobby over children’s lives; but they mock survivors of school shootings and families who have endured the worst pain imaginable. Lt. Governor Robinson’s statements are undignified and grotesque,” Bates said.
Robinson released a statement on Saturday responding to the criticism of his social media posts about school shooting survivors.
“It’s disheartening to see that the media and my opponents are focusing on comments made, while I was still a factory worker, rather than addressing the pressing issues facing our state today,” he wrote. “It’s high time we secure our schools and protect our students and school faculty. No parent should have to worry about whether or not their child will come home.”
In the 2024 Republican primary for governor, Robinson will face off with State Treasurer Dale Folwell, and possibly former U.S. Rep. Mark Walker, who is planning to announce his run this month.
Democrat Josh Stein has already announced his run for governor and so far appears to be the Democratic Party’s pick for the nomination. Stein’s video advertisement announcing his campaign early this year immediately took aim at Robinson, who has also said that students are being indoctrinated in schools and was a force behind a vetoed bill that would have regulated how race is taught in schools.
Robinson also aligns himself with former President Donald Trump and the Make America Great Again political wing of the Republican Party. He considers himself pro-life on abortion.
If he won, Robinson would be the first African American governor in North Carolina.
This story was originally published May 5, 2023 at 4:14 PM.
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