Robinson, a Republican now running for governor of the Tar Heel State, was among numerous speakers who took a turn at the microphone at the Faith and Freedom Conference over the weekend. Known for being an articulate speaker, one who doesn’t mince words, he didn’t disappoint when he challenged the media in the room.
“Is the mainstream media here?” he began. “If you're here, I want you to hear this: I don't care what you say about me. I don’t care what you do in your newsroom. I don't care about your plans and your schemes to bring this nation down, with your Democratic friends. Why? Because Jesus Christ is still on the throne.”
When that quote and others were posted to X, formerly Twitter, the social media site exploded with criticism from the other side.
"The same Jesus that allowed slavery?” one comment read.
"It's disgusting," said another.
"Love your enemies doesn't seem to apply to these Christian nationalists," said another X poster.
David Closson, director of the Center for Biblical Worldview at the Family Research Council, tells AFN nobody should be surprised when the media and the culture use “Christian nationalism” as a slur against conservatives.
“I do think that ‘Christian nationalism’ has become a boogeyman,” he says. “It is actually broadly defined to usually include any sort of basic Christian commitment or conviction.”
After winning the Republican primary in March, Robinson is facing North Carolina’s attorney general, Josh Stein, in a gubernatorial race that is expected to be a close one.
A year ago, a press release from Stein called Robinson a "Christian nationalist" after the lieutenant governor spoke at the Faith and Freedom Conference.
Robinson a repeat victim of dirty politics
Robinson, 55, stumbled into politics in 2018. That is the year a furniture factory worker signed up for a speaking slot, and delivered a fiery speech about Second Amendment rights, at a city council meeting.
Video of his unprepared, four-minute speech went viral.
Robinson’s disdain for Democrats and their allies in liberal newsrooms is likely related to him witnessing his opponents twist his words and take them out of context for dirty politics. An AFN story from March pointed out Robinson was being called a “Holocaust denier” by the national media and by Democrats. His opponents dug up an online post from him that appeared to suggest Robinson was questioning if Adolf Hitler really disarmed the Jews. The post, from 2018, reads:
“…This foolishness about Hitler disarming MILLIONS of Jews and then marching them off to concentration camps is a bunch of hogwash…”
In context, however, the entire post from Robinson showed the furniture factory worker knew his world history. Robinson was pointing out the Weimar Republic had disarmed the German people, leaving them defenseless, before Hitler ever rose to power.
It just so happens that Robinson is facing a Jew, Stein, in the tight race for the governor’s seat.
A year ago, Robinson’s speech at a Mom’s for Liberty even was also twisted to claim the lieutenant governor was promoting the writings of the world’s most evil tyrants, such as Hitler, Stalin, and Mao.
In fact, according to a helpful USA Today fact-check, the history-studying lieutenant governor was warning about tyrants and dictators. In his speech, Robinson urged the audience to read their writings to better understand the threats they posed.
“It’s time for us to start teaching our children some of those quotes,” he said. “It’s time for us to start teaching our children about the dirty, despicable, awful things that those communist and socialist despots did in our history."
