Trafficking in Antisemitism Is Disqualifying, HuffPo Needn’t Invent Reasons for Rejecting N.C. Republican

A recent article that aimed to kill the prospects of a Republican gubernatorial candidate in North Carolina is emblematic of journalists’ inability to let the truth get in the way of a hot headline. Titled “Mark Robinson: ‘I Absolutely Want To Go Back To The America Where Women Couldn’t Vote,'” the Huffington Post‘s exhumation of North Carolina’s Lieutenant Governor Robinson speaking at a ladies’ luncheon, not only misrepresents the man’s words but also lends a man with a history of some wild antisemitic remarks the license to claim his critics are universally out to get him with smears. Ach!

From the Huffington Post:

But just four years ago, Robinson said he’d “absolutely” like to return to the days when the 19th Amendment didn’t exist ― when women didn’t have the right to vote.

“I absolutely want to go back to the America where women couldn’t vote,” Robinson said in a newly resurfaced video of his remarks at a March 2020 event hosted by the Republican Women of Pitt County.

One problem: The Huffington Post was overzealous at the editor’s desk (to give the benefit of the doubt) and overlooked the removal of a rather important bit of his — the part where he makes clear that he’s lauding the GOP’s past contributions to enfranchising racial minorities and women.

As friend-of-NR John McCormack notes:

The Huffington Post messed up here. What’s more, it was unnecessary, though I do find it telling that a leftist outfit like HuffPo would rather drag him down for alleged misogyny than antisemitism — almost as if the Left is suddenly uncomfortable speaking too loudly in defense of Jews.

Mark Robinson was already unfit for office. Robinson, who stumbled into modest political stardom in 2018 after a pro-2A speech of his before a city council gained traction online, has publicized many views that are the scrapings of an internet midden. From Rothschild conspiracies to Hitler quotations and all other manner of antisemitic intrigues, Robinson’s internet history is still public. The man has some talent for public speaking; he has a commanding voice and presence, but whatever powers he has as an orator are betrayed by an absence of prudence.

Seth Mandel observes for Commentary:

The Marvel hero Black Panther, he once said, was “created by an agnostic Jew and put to film by satanic Marxist” in order to “pull the shekels out of your Schvartze pockets.”

Apparent Jewish influence in Hollywood is a particular obsession of his. In a 2017 post on Facebook, where many of his controversial statements were posted, he wrote: “The 1977 version of ‘Roots’ is one of the most vile things EVER filmed. It is nothing but Hollywood trash that depicts the ignorance and brutality of the goyim, and the helplessness and weakness of the shvartze.”

He also agreed with a pastor who claimed the Rothschild family was one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. And he seemed to cast some doubt on aspects of the Holocaust by putting scare quotes around the numbers in one post: “There is a REASON the liberal media fills the airwaves with programs about the NAZI and the ‘6 million Jews’ they murdered.”

If he were just Mark Robinson, the furniture manufacturer, his multiple posts per day on Facebook would be the sort of thing one would wrinkle a nose at and mute were one his friend. Some guys are lonely and like to cause a stir — toying with stupid-to-malign ideas is more common than any of us should want but nonetheless represents a significant minority of internet users.

However, Mark Robinson isn’t assembling furniture by day and running his mouth by night — he’s running to be governor of North Carolina. What he’s said and written without apology, only a hand-wave of dismissal, is unacceptable for public office. I say these while acknowledging that standards for decency have taken lefts and rights of late, but one can’t reestablish a standard without holding it in the ground long enough for the cement to firm up some.

Bad journalism grants fools and villains the cover they need to accumulate power while playing the aggrieved. No one deserves to be misrepresented, especially those whose continued access to public office is least beneficial to the American people.