Episode 45: Mark Robinson Unleashed: One on One with the GOP's Next Superstar

Lieutenant Governor, is really a pleasure to have you. I've learned about you recently and I follow your Facebook page and I've been seeing the videos, and I get really excited and fired up when I hear you speak. So thank you for all you're doing, not just for the party but the country. Well, thank you for having me here. We appreciate all those all those kind words. We certainly do. Thank you absolutely. Before we get into politics and the issues of the day, I want to talk to you

about your upbringing. I know you face adversity with an abusive father and you found yourself in foster care. Tell us what life was like growing up, Where were you raised, how did you overcome a rough childhood? Well? Uh, born and raised in Greensboro, North Carolina. Uh, my childhood when I looked back on my childhood, I had a happy childhood. But it was right with all those things. My father was never abusive towards me or my siblings, but he was very abusive towards my mother. Uh. They had a

very contentious, very violent relationship. He was an alcoholic. Uh. And he died when I was around twelve. When well, when I was twelve, I was in the fifth grade when he died my mom. That left my mom with five children in total. All of us were in school range from twelfth grade the first grade. UM, and so uh. You know, she had a choice. She could either go to work or or or go to the go towards welfare.

She chose to work. She was a custodian. She did that for a number, for gosh, for almost thirty years. She was a coustodian. And that's how she took care of us. And I saw her have her priorities in order and do things on that custodian salary that the people would say was impossible, but she did it. And that taught me a great deal about what it takes to make it in life. What it takes to make it in life, It's for you to go out and earn your living and four your destiny. And that's what

my mom did, and that's the example from shows. She also had a very strong faith in God, which I you know, I sustained her as well, so uh the primary source for strength as a matter of fact. So uh that was that was what my offbering was like like and that's what I learned. And this is uh as like I said, it's what helped leave me to where I am right now. Wow. And the faith in God,

I think is the critical point. And I've seen you talk about that and viral clip after viral clip about how how how you believe and why you believe and why you believe this is the best country in an entire world and how God Jesus Is really had his hands on America. Can you expound on that please? Well,

you know people people don't like to admit it. You know a lot of people that don't like to admit the fact that the reason why uh, this country is has been blessed because people pray for God to bless this nation. We say it in our songs, you know, we say it in our in our founding documents. We we say that every everywhere, everywhere you turn around. We always give God credit for for what he's done and what he can do and what he will do. And I think because of that, he hears it and he blessed.

And of course we're not perfect people. We're not perfect people. We're not a perfect nation. We never have been, and we don't claim to be. But we ultimately we know who we is we have to answer to, and we know who it is that oh that we owe the credit to, and that's who, that's who we give that credit to. And as far as it's being the greatest nation on earth, you know, I don't see Mary. I've read this this this morning on social media, and it's true.

America is so great that even the people that hate it, hate America, won't leave. That's how great America is. The people who claim to hate it leads. Uh, this is this is still the greatest snakes on our still a place where you can make dreams come true. And uh, that's I mean, that's just the way it is. The proof is, like they say, the proof is in the

Putt indeed it is. And like I mentioned before, viral video after viral video, you really arrived on the national scene for a lot of people in two thousand and eighteen, UM, and it was because of a viral video of you defending gun rights in the second Amendment of the meeting at the Greensboro City Council And that got you noticed.

And from what I understand from watching the interview with you and Governor Mike Huckleby, UM, it got over two hundred million views, he said, I mean from there, I mean you talked about what people told you you could do in terms of creating a brand for yourself and making a lot of money because you're this you know, this fresh star before millions of people, but you chose to serve instead. And what got you into politics. I've been politically aware, what I call politically aware for many

many years. That started way back and uh the mid nineties, I guess. Uh. I had a friend who uh challenged me to think better and uh, you know, to do my own research. And I did that and once I did, I found out that I was a conservative and I

always had been a conservative. And then I started looking at the two parties, the Republican Party Democratic Party, and learning about the differences between the platforms and the differences between the histories of the two parties, and of course I logically fell on the on the right hand side of the Republican Party. And uh so i'd like to tell folks, you know, uh uh, being involved in politics is not it's not really well, you have you have

an option, but here are the options. You can make the determination of how you're governing and who governed you or somebody else can make that determination. And somebody else is making that determination, it's probably not going to turn out good for you. The founders made this country so that the people could decide who who it is that would govern them. And when we don't take that responsibility series we end up with people who don't have our

best interests at hard. We need to make sure that we we take it serious and politics needs to be something we all need to be involved. And that's like I said that about involved, absolutely, And I love your story reminds me of my own, which I talked about my book Taking for Granted. I love to send you a copy of that. But yeah, just learning the distinctions between the parties and realizing that oftentimes, especially as black conservatives.

I'm not sure what you're experiencing upbringing was, but mine on the South Side of Chicago. I realized quickly after our research the two party systems in the history that we largely have been lied to about the Republican Party and the history Democrats have did such a brilliant marketing job to make people think that the Republican Party was

just a racist party. They created slavery, Jim Crown, all these other things, and to find out none of that was true was actually the Democratic Party was pretty astounding to me and made me really, uh question the people that were around me. Did you have the same experience, Yeah, well, uh, honestly, yeah. I mean, you know, when you really look at the stories and you just you're just blown away by how

much misinformation there is out there. You know, Uh, just one small thing you could take out of that you take a look at, uh, or something like the epithet that's thrown Uncle Tom. People throw that as an epithet and then and and many of the people that use that word don't have a clue is that where it

came from. They don't understand anything about who the character Uncle Tom was in the book and what he did, and they don't they don't understand it all the Uncle Tom with somebody who sacrificed his life because he refused to turn away, to turn turn over to runaway girls would run away from the horrible master Simon legree. They don't have a clue that in that book that he was beaten to death by two other black slaves who would do anything to it, including beating a good man

to death at the behalf of Simon mcgree. The evil matter when you read that book and you understand that book, it's one of the books that opened my eyes up more than anything about what you just said about how the Democratic Party and the leftists have turned this entire thing around. You can see a micro calls him of all their lives and coming to understand what that book and that name represents. And that's just one example of the way that that folks have been lied to and

this whole thing has been turned upside down. Only say it and and of course we're talking about from a historic perspective, but those lives continue today. And I want to play this audio for you that a majority with James Clapporn was just on MSNBC, and he was talking about the funded police movement, which we know a lot of progressives folks just generally on the left said was the best way in terms of creating uh more fairness and equality when it comes to policing in America, and um,

what they believe is that the best route forward. If you would just take a listen, I want to get your response. On the other side, defunded police is a non start, even the black people. And if you don't think that's true, then look at the results of what just happened in York sitting this election. So the proof is in the pudding. I know what I'm talking about. I talked to people every day and defund the police. Is it cool around the Democratic Party? What do you

What do you think about that? From the majority with Clyburn, it just goes to show you how ludicrous the statement is defunded police. You know, even if this guy, a progressive Democrat, is saying it's hard for you know, it's again. You know, I've told some ideas, uh everything that the left has it counted. They've cut counted climate change. All the predictions they've made about climate change have not come true. They they are now their their accounting critical race theory.

We know those things are not true. There now they now counted defunding the police. We see the horrible effects of that. Everything that they tell it's almost like a collection of I told you so. We conservatives were screaming from the raptors. If we contained this anti police rhetoric, we're gonna see crime go through the route. It's gonna go through the roof. And what has happened. Crime has gone through the roof. So you know, Uh, it's it's no.

It's actually shocking to hear him say that. Uh, admit that in public, but he's absolutely right. It's just it is one of the dumbest things, uh, one of the top five dumbest things I think there's ever been proposed, uh, in in my lifetime and possibly in the history of this nation. We're talking to Mark Robinson and Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina and rising superstar within the GOK. We've got much more with him right after a quick break.

You know what's interesting to me, and I gotta tell you, I'm gonna be just straight up honest with you. There's you know, obviously a lot of figures and figures in are in the Republican Party, but you, in my opinion, you and Rhon de Santa's are the most exciting two people in the Republican Party, and I think have the most rolls, robust opportunity for the party. I listened to speeches of yours and it sounds like a Baptist preacher.

And I'm gonna tell you, I think that the words in which you use, in the way in which you disseminate your message is one in which would resonate with all coalitions, all constituencies, black folks, white folks, expanding folks, whatever. You're just a truth teller. Why do you think your stars is rised so quickly in the in the GOP and national and nationally it's a matter of people have been hungry for somebody to stand up and just tell the truth. And too many people are afraid to stand

up and tell the truth. Know we we see it all the time. We see folks that you know you you know what's right. You don't people know exactly what's right. Then you have a room full of people sitting there in in a in a collect why it would be a school board, whether it be a city council, whether it be Congress, and everybody in the room will know what the right thing to do is, and nobody will stand up and do the right thing. That's what we need in this country. We need people that are unafraid

to stand up and just tell the truth. And sometimes, yeah, the truth hurts and the truth sounds ugly, but sometimes just needs to be told. And that's what people want to hear. They want to hear somebody tell the truth. Now, I've told people several times, you know that my my goal is not to get elected in any office. That's not the ultenate goal. Ulten and goals to leave people with the truth and let people here here the truth.

And if they don't want to, they want to reject the truth hunts, and so be it, so be it reject the truth. But that's that's that's gonna that's gonna be what I'm gonna tell people all the time, and that it turns out that that's what the majority of people out there they want to hear, soolutely it is. Now, you're lieutenant governor. Now in North Carolina, the governor is a Democrat. You're well respected. Now tell me what what

what why did you choose to run for Lieutenant governor. Well, uh, we looked at running a lot of officers, a lot of different officers, and when we looked at this office in particular, we thought it was you know, it suited our skill set just right. What the job entails uh uh you know a lot of what this job entails is having what they call a bully pull pit to be able to push, uh, push back against things and push for things that you uh, that you stand for.

And we said, hey, you know, we're pretty good at that. I think we'll we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll try to step into this role. And so far we've done well at it. Uh and we uh, we're gonna continue to try to do well at because you know, the states it's doing well right now, doing very good. But I believe this state can do a whole lot better in the future.

But I think what it's gonna take to do a whole lot better in the future is to continue with the conservative prince will that have gotten us to this point. And uh so we decided to get in there and help these conservatives here in North Carolina. They helped fight to make this state even better. Yeah. Absolutely, Now I tell you people don't just love you, they're genuinely excited about your political future. So with that being said, what is your future in the GOP? Do you have any

aspirations beyond lieutenant governor at this point? Well, we're sitting down with our folks and we're talking about what we think the next step is the best step, next best step will be. We have to determined that yet, But as soon as we do, we're gonna let the people know and we're gonna try to rally wherever it is we need a rally to get to that point. Uh. But we like said, we have not made that decision firmly yet, but we will here pretty soon. Okay, so

not firmly. But I have to ask, and I'm sure a lot of people are asking you this question, what about if not the top job that being president, would consider being someone's running mate if they asked you, maybe round the sentence if he was to choose to run, Well, you know, right now, nothing is off the table. What I want to do is I want to go to a place where we can be the most effective for the causes that we believe in. And if that should happen to be, no matter what that that where that

place might be. We're all for something of that, of that nature. We would evaluate it and we would feel like that, Uh, it was good with me and good with my family and good with God. We go that direction. But what we want to do is find out a place where we're gonna be absolute most effective. Absolutely, And I can appreciate that. And I'm glad that you're thinking

about that because there's a lot of folks. I'm sure we put a lot of a lot of time and energy behind your candidacy, with with whatever role you may choose, I want to switch gears and move the President Biden. You said last month that President biden Is administration are turning America into a socialist hell whole, and you urge fellow Republicans to run to the trouble. What did you mean by that? Uh, don't arn away from it. Don't

run away from it, run to it. There's trouble. There's you know, we have we have uh, we have enemy. We have enemy inside our camp. We have a we have an enemy that's no longer outside the gate. They are inside the wire. They are actively working against this nation. I believe to bring this nation down, to bring what Barack Obama calls UH fundamental change to our to our system of government, and to our way of life. We have to actively go to those people and confront those

people and confront that problem. We have to work to make sure we get those people out of office, and we have to work to make sure we get people in offices that are gonna have this country's best interests at our i e. Making sure that capitalism, our constitution, and all the good things that come from and continue to stand in this nation. So we need to confront it headlong. We do not need to be afraid this whole thing is shrinking away and hoping that somebody else

to do it. That time is over. We gotta step up it. We gotta take this calls on them. We gotta be the want to do them. Mark, I absolutely agree with you. Let's dig into that further after a break. What are your thoughts of the current Republican Party, Because I'll tell you, you know, Democrats, Uh, in spite of their failings and all this other stuff in the policy. We can talk about the cultural wars, we can talk

about any number of things. They seem to be kind of tough in a way that they all lie cheat steal, it doesn't matter, and they'll look you in their face and say, oh, no, Republicans want to defund the police, not us. Like it's like, no, Republicans were the party of slavery, not us. No, like they would say all these different things, which they just said something three months ago or maybe even the day before. They don't have a problem doing any of those things. And we got

some Republicans. I think back to the Hunter Biden situation. Hunter Biden using an inn word. We see what happened with um the congressman when he said something about white supremacy to the New York Times, when the white supremacy become a bad thing, nationalism or something like that he said. Anyway, they stripped him of his comedian assignments, essentially put him out the party. Hunter Biden. You know, no no comments from the White House, no comments from any Democratic leader.

You see Sheldon white House, the senator, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse belonging to a quote, as it was reported, all white social club, but white only. That's what it was called, a white only social club. And they won't say anything about it. But you know, Republicans, we gotta be do the right thing. Put folks out the party, and you know, they can do and say whatever they want. What is the party need to do? And that's right, the right

thing to do. Let me comment on that. But what is it that the Republican Party needs to do in this day and time when you've got so many lives coming from the left and also the liberal media who perpetrate those same lives. They have to be bold and telling the truth, just like President Trump was President Trump over Frank Stamp to tell the truth. That's why people love. There are too many folks who, uh say, well, you know, we shouldn't say that because that will have the wrong

kind of tone. Look, how do you call somebody a liar? If they're somebody is a proven liar. The only way to call that person a liar effectively is to say, hey, you're a liar. You know, if somebody is a proven bigger and has proven it time and time again that they would have said bigger at things, and if push bigger at policy, how do you call that person the biggert? You say, hey, this person is a biggert who pushed bigger at policies. It's time for for for conservatives to

stop being timid with the truth. I say it like this, we gotta be as bold with the truth as they are with their lives, and often times we are not. We've kept to around things, and we don't want to attack. We don't want to punch, and be quite frankly, we don't want to kick. Sometimes we need to do all all of that and more because there are people out there right now are doing things that are absolutely egregious. These people out of here to the pushing CRT and

pushing these on the police. And I've already openly claimed to be so, and already openly proudly for claim to be socialists and tell us that they want to change the minds of our children, and tell us they want to bring the country down. We need to fight those folks with everything that we have, and those people that are not doing it should be ashamed themselves. I can

agree with that. I appreciate that sentiment, and and thank you for mentioning CRT also known as critical race theory for those who may not know, I want to ask you another question about a statement you made last month. You said the following, the government cannot give the American dream, but the government will give you as false hope, and

that will give you a nightmare. The American dream only comes through hard work, stead fastness, and standing up and controlling your own destiny, not allowing the government to do that, but doing it yourself. I agree with that message wholeheartedly. What can be done to push more Black Americans to fully embrace this message and stop voting for the big government Democrats and start voting for conservatives. Of things we can do is, you know, we could might remind folks

of their of their history. You know, it's funny when things in this nation were at their worst for black people. Black people were at their best when we were in our own neighborhoods. Uh, and we were confining those neighborhoods by segregation. When we were on our own schools and we were confined to those schools by segregation. Uh. We had uh homes with two two parents. We had uh doctors, lawyers. Uh. We had we were building schools, we were building we

built churches, we built whole communities. Uh. Those trends started to change once we turned our power over to the federal government and start believing that the federal government was in control of our destiny, our fortunes started to change the single parenthood start going through the roof. UH, Crime in our neighborhoods start going through the roof, Our education numbers start dropping dramatically. UH. In order to get those things back, we've got to understand that we are not

to rely on the federal government. We are to rely on each other, on our families, on our communities. Sure, the federal government has a role to play because they set they set the rules, they make the rules, so to speak, and they're supposed to be the guardians of our constitution to keep our freedoms. But the real question is not what the federal government will do for you, is what will you do with the rights that you have.

That's the real question, and that's what we've got to get back to, not even what you can do for your country, really because we want to do it for

our country. But I believe that the best thing that you can do for this country, the best thing you can do for this country, the best thing you can do for your state, your your your your city, and your neighborhood and your family, is by understanding that you have to do what's right with your You have to do what's right with your rights, and if you do that, Uh, I think that we get folks to to really believe in that, do that. I think that's how we get

back to that good place we were wanting. Now, before I let you go and thank you for that, for sharing that with me or with us, rather before I let you go, I know you're you're a man of faith. You've been vocal about it. I want to ask you just two questions. Here's a two part question. I want to know what role does your faith playing your life and in your politics? And does it concern you that it seems to be that our country is becoming increasingly

secular and outright hostile to faith. Well, you know, you know, wisdom, Wisdom comes from from from faith. Wisdom comes from God. Where where there's no God, there's no real wisdom. That's bottom line. Where there is no God, there's no wisdom. Because the very first step in in in in wisdom is having a fear of God. That's the very first that's the very first step in with So where there is no there's old faith in God, there's no wisdom. And I'm convinced to that you can see it in

the chaos. Has been bread in our school system that has pushed God out of the public square, which leads me to the second part that the more we continue to push God, in the principles of God, out of the public square, out of politics, out of education, out of mass media, out of out of all of our businesses, we're just gonna see more and more chaos. Never in my lifetime, but I would have thought that human beings would be confused about whether or not somebody's a man

or woman. But here we are, and while we're there, we're there because people simply refuse to acknowledge God's creation, simple creations. There are men and there are women, and people refuse to acknowledge that. And because of that, we're now living in the age of chaos right again. Well, you know what I want to tell you. I thank you for for giving us some time today to to

learn more about you. And I know for those who don't uh and this is their first opportunity to learn about you, I'm sure they're gonna want to learn more word about you. Can you tell us if you've got anything playing in North Carolina that folks at homes you know about? And where should people stay updated? Is it Facebook? Or how can they they be in touch in that

way to follow what you're doing. People that keep up with us on Facebook at Mark Robinson uh, and they can keep up for us at on Facebook at Mark Keith Robinson. That's my personal page. They can also keep up with us on Twitter at Mark Robinson n C. And uh, we're also on Uh, we're on Instagram as well, but I'm not sure the addressed because I very rarely go on Instagram, but we do have a page there. When I said, we have a pretty strong following there. So you keep up with us on all those social

media platforms and uh uh. Like I said, we just are happy to have the support of people out there and continue to want to do things to keep that sport a man. And I certainly follow you on Facebook, and I appreciate all that you're doing for the for the party in the country, in your state, of course, and certainly you have definitely piqued the attention of many folks outside of North Carolina, and we're going to continue

to follow you and support what you're doing. So thank you, Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson for joining me on out Loud with Gianno called. Well, all right, thank you for having me. We'll appreciate. I want to thank Mark Robinson again for a great interview. If you're enjoying the show, please leave us a review and rate us with five stars on

Apple Podcasts. If you have any questions for me, please email me at out loud at engistreet sixty dot com and I'll try to answer them in our future episodes. And please sign it for my monthly newsletter at Ginglis Street sixty dot com slash out loud. You can also follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and parlor at Giano Caldwell. And if you're interested in learning more about my story, please pick up a copy of my best selling book title Taken for Granted, How Conservatism Can Win Back to

the Americans their Liberalism Failed. Special thanks to our producer Drew Steele, researcher Aaron Klingman, and executive producers Debbie Myers and speaker New Gingridge, all part of the Gingish Free sixty Network