Lt. Gov. Robinson remarks at Bladen County church in spotlight

WHITE LAKE, NC (WWAY) — Comments made at a Bladen County church by Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson have become a flashpoint in the gubernatorial campaign.

Robinson spoke at Lake Church in White Lake for a “God and Country Day” event on Sunday, June 30.

At one point during his speech, Robinson made an analogy between the struggles of 21st century politics and World War II:

“We now find ourselves struggling with people who have evil intent. You know there was a time when we used to meet evil on the battlefield and guess what we did to it? We killed it. We didn’t quibble about it, we didn’t argue about it, we didn’t fight about it, we killed it! When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, we flew to Japan, and we killed the Japanese Army and Navy. We didn’t even quibble about it. ‘I didn’t start this fight, you did! You wanna be left alone, you shoulda left me alone.’ 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 gonna say that’s awful. Too bad! Get mad at me if you want to. Some folks need killing.”

NC Rep. Deb Butler, who represents New Hanover County, reacted on X to a tweet featuring part of the speech saying, quote:  “This rhetoric must be denounced by each and every leader in the NCGOP. Advocating for people to be killed. If that’s your brand of Christianity Mister Robinson, you can keep it.”

Robinson campaign spokesman Mike Lonergan, who shared the full video linked above, responded to Butler’s tweet with a tweet of his own saying, “He was talking about America fighting the Axis Powers in WWII; your lies are despicable and a great example of why the voters have put the Democrat Party on the back bench in NC.”

In another tweet, Lonergan mentioned Robinson’s opponent in the election and mentioned the presidential race, tweeting, Instead of asking Josh Stein to comment on Biden’s fitness for office or his status as Dem nominee for POTUS, fake news is doing dirty work for Dems regurgitating New Republic’s smear on Mark Robinson for lauding Americans for fighting the Axis in WWII.” He added, “NC press corps can ask Josh Stein for comment on this stuff anytime they want. They’re not doing it because they’re shills for the Democrats.”