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Mark Robinson, North Carolina's lieutenant governor and a gubernatorial candidate, is a MAGA acolyte thru and thru. I’ve written on why choose Black conservatives like him have risen within the GOP in recent times, however in brief, his election denialism, blatant anti-intellectualism and outspoken bigotry towards Jewish folks, ladies, LGBTQ folks and different marginalized teams have made him a well-liked determine at the correct and earned him an area in elite conservative circles, too.
Simply weeks in the past, Trump praised the candidate all through an tournament at Mar-a-Lago, announcing, "I think you're better than Dr. Martin Luther King."
Now the Day-to-day Beast is out with extra proof to indicate Robinson boasts an in depth right-wing Rolodex.
The hole experiences on documentation it bought thru a FOIA request that Robinson's calendar indexed a in the past unreported assembly with Virginia "Ginni" Thomas, the conservative extremist and spouse of Ultimate Courtroom Justice Clarence Thomas, in March 2021. The topic of the assembly is unknown however got here mere weeks after the Jan. 6 Capitol revolt — the fruits of Thomas and different conservatives’ force marketing campaign to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss. Neither Thomas nor Robinson returned the Day-to-day Beast's request for remark.
The Day-to-day Beast experiences:
“According to a copy of Robinson’s official schedule, which was produced through a Freedom of Information Act request, the lieutenant governor had a meeting with Thomas on March 30, 2021. But Robinson didn’t just speak with Thomas that afternoon; the calendar note indicates he met with Thomas and a group she helped run called Frontliners for Liberty.
Here’s a CNBC report on FrontLiners for Liberty, a Facebook "activist" group that Thomas worked with to promote attempts to overturn Trump’s election loss, as well as to connect members with Trump associates like lawyer (and Trump co-defendant) John Eastman.
The Beast's report on Robinson’s meeting with Thomas follows the recent release of audio from a speech Robinson gave in 2021, in which he unabashedly claimed Joe Biden “stole” the election.
Thomas, for her section, is a conservative activist and her husband is arguably probably the most well known justice at the court docket, so it’s now not unexpected that she used to be ready to achieve any individual like Robinson. And the Area Jan. sixth Committee printed Thomas used to be involved with the Trump White Area — in particular, then-chief of group of workers Mark Meadows — about making an attempt to overturn the election effects, so it is also now not unexpected that she it appears that evidently sought after to attach an election-denier like Robinson together with her pro-Trump team.
However the assembly does shine a little of sunshine on each Thomas and Robinson. For Thomas, it fills in some information about the level of her organizing since Jan. 6, 2021 — which has been in large part, however now not totally, out of public view.
And for Robinson, it illustrates the kind of particular person North Carolinians may just get as governor if he wins his number one race and the overall election in November: a conspiracy theorist with intimate connections to conservative elites who have been deeply concerned within the effort to overthrow democracy.