NC Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson downplays past remarks about Jews, declares Israel solidarity week
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson declared “North Carolina Solidarity With Israel Week” and an upcoming day of prayer to support Israel amid its new conflict with Hamas — actions that drew sharp criticism from Democrats and Republican opponents, who pointed to Robinson’s history of remarks viewed by Jews and others as antisemitic.
The declaration came Thursday during an event in the state legislature in which Robinson — a Republican candidate for governor — flexed his interim position as acting governor, poked Democratic divisions over Israeli support and downplayed his previous statements about Jews as being “poorly worded” but not antisemitic.
Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper is in Japan for an economic development trip. Under the state constitution, Robinson is the acting governor until Cooper returns, a detail that fueled another debate — over who’s actually in charge of the state.
Robinson said it's important for the state to show as much support to Israel as possible, decrying an "unprovoked and unjustified invasion" by Hamas, a Palestinian militant group based in the Gaza Strip. The week of solidarity begins today and runs through Oct. 19. The day of prayer begins at sunset on Friday.
“The United States will stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel and its people,” Robinson said.
Cooper dismissed the announcement by Robinson as a cynical publicity stunt meant to bolster his 2024 campaign for the GOP nomination.
"It’s tragically ironic that someone with a long history of hate speech against Jewish people would take advantage of death and destruction in Israel for his own political purposes," Cooper wrote on social media Thursday.
Robinson spent most of Thursday's press conference defending past remarks downplaying Nazism, promoting conspiracy theories about Jewish control over finance and Hollywood, and other statements. Robinson resisted calls to apologize for those remarks Thursday, saying he's not actually antisemitic.
"There have been some Facebook posts that were poorly worded on my part," he said, adding: "There is no antisemitism standing here in front of you."
Robinson is widely seen as the front-runner to win the Republican Party's nomination for governor next year. Cooper can't run again due to term limits.
The Democratic gubernatorial front-runner, Attorney General Josh Stein, is Jewish. His campaign characterized Robinson's actions Thursday as politically motivated.
“Mark Robinson called the Holocaust 'hogwash' and now uses the slaughter of Israelis and Americans to perform a transparent political stunt," said Kate Frauenfelder, a spokeswoman for Stein's campaign. "This is as close as he should ever get to being governor."
Robinson in a past Facebook post called reports of the Holocaust "hogwash." In a separate 2017 post, he implied that the widely accepted figure of 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis is false.
In 2019 Robinson went on a podcast hosted by an alleged cult leader, where he endorsed the host's conspiracy theory that Jewish bankers are one of the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse," along with Muslims, China and the CIA.
"That’s exactly right," Robinson told the podcast host. "It’s amazing to me that we live in this age of information where you can go online and you can find all this information, and it’s not hidden from anybody.”
Asked to respond to the criticism, Robinson spokesman John Waugh accused Cooper and Stein of turning a blind eye to what he described as antisemitism in the Democratic Party. He cited statements made by progressive activists, as well as a part of the North Carolina Democratic Party’s official 2022 platform, which criticizes Israel for violating international laws and accuses the country of committing human rights violations.
“Cooper and Stein's responses are shamelessly cynical politics at its worst,” Waugh said. “Time and time again they look the other way at the rampant antisemitism among North Carolina Democrats.”
On Thursday, Robinson said he wants to move on from his own past statements.
"I've never been antisemitic," he said. "I've never had anything against the Jewish people."
Robinson’s actions Thursday could have some political utility, said Michael Bitzer, a political science professor at Catawba College.
Robinson can’t undo his past statements that people view as antisemitic, Bitzer said. But his action Thursday can at least give him something to point to in the future when he’s accused of antisemitism — even if it also opened him up to a fresh round of criticism and negative publicity over his past statements.
“It puts him in a kind of odd situation of trying to gain public support, but at the same time being recognized for ill-fated comments he's made in the past,” Bitzer said.
If the governor’s race in 2024 comes down to Robinson and Stein, the result will be historic no matter what. North Carolina has never had a Jewish governor or a Black governor, but a race between the two of them next year would guarantee one of those barriers to be broken.
Some voters are still swayed by racism, antisemitism and other such factors, Bitzer said, but it’s nowhere near as predominant as it once was. Now, he said, voters are less likely to embrace those views and more likely to punish them at the ballot box.
“Antisemitism is something that candidates obviously do not want any connection to,” he said.
Democratic division on Israel
Robinson’s declaration came days after bipartisan statements of Israeli support in the state House and Senate. But there was some division among Democrats on such statements.
The House voted 104-0 Tuesday in support of a resolution condemning Hamas and urging the U.S. Congress to send Israel money and other support in the new war. Of the 48 Democrats in the chamber, about 12 of them didn’t vote on the measure, which drew criticism from Republicans. The same day, the Senate read a pro-Israel statement into the record that was signed by 46 of the 50 state senators. Four of the 20 Senate Democrats declined to sign it.
“It is unconscionable to me that Democrats have become so extreme that they walked out and refused to vote on a resolution condemning the slaughtering of children and raping of women,” said Rep. Erin Pare, R-Wake on Tuesday.
Robinson didn’t directly target those Democratic lawmakers but spoke more broadly of his desire to “drown out a radical few that would side with extremists who seek nothing less than wiping out the Jewish people and the State of Israel from the map. These radicals do not reflect the people of North Carolina.”
While Republican legislators blasted the Democrats who didn’t sign on to the statements, the state’s only Jewish senator said she respected their decision not to sign the Senate statement — even though she wrote it, along with GOP colleague Sen. Ted Alexander, R-Cleveland.
“This is a bad faith use of the statement Sen. Alexander and I put forth yesterday — an unconscionable use of this tragic situation to take a cheap political shot,” Sen. Lisa Grafstein, D-Wake, wrote on social media after Senate Republicans began criticizing those who didn’t sign.
Grafstein also said Tuesday, while her pro-Israel statement was being read, that those who didn’t sign it had spoken with her privately beforehand to explain they weren’t comfortable signing anything that encouraged war. Some House Democrats who voted for the resolution also urged recognition that civilians aren't just being killed on the Israeli side of the border.
Rep. Marvin Lucas, D-Cumberland, said Tuesday during a House session that he supports Israel but cautioned against lumping in all Palestinians with Hamas.
He said the Gaza Strip's 2 million residents live in extreme poverty, have been mistreated for years, and that most of them are not part of the fighting. "They're still human beings," Lucas said. "They ought to have the right to have food. They ought to have the right to have electricity. And, God knows, the body cannot exist without water. So in our quest to strike a balance, please remember that these are still people there, too. Most of them innocent. Don't forget that."
Republicans criticize Robinson
While Republicans were united in their support for Israel, they weren’t unified on Robinson’s approach.
State Treasurer Dale Folwell, who is running against Robinson for the GOP nomination for governor, joined Democrats in criticizing him, saying that while he condemns the attack on Israel and supports the country’s defense, he couldn’t in good conscience accept Robinson’s invitation to Thursday’s event.
“You have regrettably seized the opportunity to engage in a stunt with dubious authority as acting governor,” he wrote in a statement, addressing Robinson. “... As a person who has shamefully denied the Holocaust and whose history is checkered with hateful antisemitic comments, you have no right to be commenting on this topic.”
Another of Robinson’s GOP opponents in the race for governor, former U.S. Rep. Mark Walker, also characterized Robinson’s actions as a publicity stunt.
“For a political candidate to attempt to use Israel’s nightmare for political gain is appalling,” Walker said in a text message to WRAL. “I’ve actually met with Prime Minister Netanyahu at the Israeli Knesset in Jerusalem and my heart breaks for the Jewish people.”
While Folwell and Walker attacked Robinson, not all Republicans were bothered by his announcement Thursday — nor his history of comments perceived by many as antisemitic.
State Rep. Jake Johnson, R-Polk, said Robinson “has long since apologized for the wording of a past social media post & affirmed his support for the State of Israel. I'm way more concerned over the contingency of Democrats in both chambers who refuse to condemn the terror of today.”
What Cooper's absence means
Cooper is in Japan leading a 35-person North Carolina team at an economic development conference, opening the door for Robinson to take over as acting governor.
The state constitution mandates that power-sharing dynamic whenever the governor leaves the state. Cooper has previously said Robinson has no real authority to act as governor. The governor's office said this week that similar rules have been struck down in other states since it's a relic of a time when officials traveled by horse and cell phones didn't exist.
Cooper spokeswoman Sam Chan said Cooper has continued to direct the state government while in Japan, including doing his own official outreach to Israel. Cooper on Thursday ordered flags to be flown at half-staff for victims of the violence in the Middle East.
"Governor Cooper stands steadfast in supporting Israel and their right to self-defense and has taken action to protect houses of worship and other religious organizations here that could be targets," Chan said. "He has also been in communication with the Israeli government to reaffirm our partnership."
The trip halfway across the world is a rare international sojourn for the governor. His office put out a news release shortly before the Robinson event Thursday showing Cooper smiling with other attendees, including U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, a well known Democrat who was President Barack Obama's chief of staff.
Cooper's office said the governor met with the president of Toyota Motor Corporation, which is investing billions in North Carolina manufacturing facilities, and the chief executive of Bridgestone Global, which has a tire manufacturing facility in Wilson.
More than 27,000 people in North Carolina work for Japanese-owned companies, Cooper’s office said. The conference Cooper is attending, the Southeast U.S./Japan Association's annual meeting, will be held in Charlotte next year.
“Over thousands of miles of land and sea and several generations, North Carolina’s relationship with Japan has grown strong and resolute, producing valuable successes for our people,” Cooper said in the release, “We look forward to continuing to work together to bring success to both the southeastern United States and Japan through this valuable partnership.”
