NC Republican Who Posted Extremist Rants On Facebook Is Set To Run For Governor, Report Says

Posted on by Hunter Walker

North Carolina Lieutenant Gov. Mark Robinson (R), who has a long history of attacking gay people, Jews, and various minorities, is now reportedly seeking higher office. On Thursday, one day after TPM published a look at Robinson’s years of extremist Facebook posts, Axios revealed that he is set to announce a gubernatorial bid at a rally next month.

Along with his online writings, Robinson has made a series of controversial comments in speeches and church sermons. Despite his history of inflammatory remarks, Robinson is, according to Axios, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination. Robinson’s extensive, typo-filled Facebook oeuvre included myriad attacks on trans and gay people, a community he dubbed a “FILTHY ABOMINATION” and a “satanic cult of sexual perversion.”

“We have pushed homosexuality over the top. Mark my words PEDOPHILLA is next, which will be closely followed by the END of civilization as we know it,” Robinson wrote in 2014.

Robinson, who did not respond to a request for comment, also wrote posts where he hinted at conspiracy theories that advocacy groups have called anti-Semitic and seemed to question the Holocaust.

“There is a REASON the liberal media fills the airwaves with programs about the NAZI and the ‘6 million Jews’ they murdered,” wrote Robinson in 2017. “There is also a REASON those same liberals DO NOT FILL the airwaves with programs about the Communist and the 100+ million PEOPLE they murdered throughout the 20th century.”

If elected, Robinson would be North Carolina’s first Black governor. However, on Facebook, he was extremely critical of the Black community. In various posts in recent years, Robinson called Black people “muddle headed negroes,” “apes,” and “a monkey.” He also expressed frustration with those who would criticize calls for “WHITE PRIDE” or displays of Confederate symbols. 

“February is Black History Month. I guess the shortest month of the year is all we need to learn about the separate but equal history of a people who have achieved so little,” Robinson wrote in 2014. 

On Facebook, Robinson also criticized immigrants, Muslims, and people from other countries. In addition to his criticism of the LGBT community and various ethnic groups, Robinson indicated he believed in the “illuminati” and “New World Order,” and was curious about conspiracy theories in general. 

“I don’t believe the Moon Landing was faked and I don’t believe 9/11 was an ‘inside job’ but if I found both were true…I wouldn’t be surprised,” he wrote in 2017.

TPM’s examination of Robinson’s extensive Facebook archive also revealed he had created an online wrestling persona named “Bigg Smoke.”

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democrat who is running for governor, responded to the TPM story with a tweet on Wednesday where he warned against a potential gubernatorial bid from Robinson.

“Mark Robinson is an extremist and conspiracy theorist who would drag our state backward,” Stein wrote.

Bragg’s Office Slams GOPers’ Demand For Testimony: Not A ‘Legitimate Basis For Congressional Inquiry’ 

Posted on by Emine Yücel

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office pushed back on House Republicans’ recent demand that he provide sworn testimony on his investigation into Donald Trump in the Stormy Daniels hush money case – an inquiry that came after the former president announced he expected to be arrested on Tuesday. 

Continue reading “Bragg’s Office Slams GOPers’ Demand For Testimony: Not A ‘Legitimate Basis For Congressional Inquiry’ “ →

Pranksters Get #DeSantis2024 Trending On Trump’s Truth Social. Then The Site Shut Down.

Posted on by Kaila Philo

Online trolls got a pro-DeSantis hashtag trending on Truth Social to make Donald Trump mad. Within hours, the site went offline, Vice News first reported.

Continue reading “Pranksters Get #DeSantis2024 Trending On Trump’s Truth Social. Then The Site Shut Down.” →

NRA’s Path To Recovery From Financial Woes Leaves The Gun Group Vulnerable To New Problems

Posted on by John Light

This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It was originally published at The Conversation.

The National Rifle Association’s financial firepower, which arose in part due to its large and loyal membership base, has long been one of the gun group’s main sources of strength.

But the NRA has in recent years faced a financial tsunami, one that came to light after the 2016 election. A swirl of disagreements with longtime business partners, accusations of waste and misspending, ballooning debt and lawsuits from the New York and Washington, D.C. attorneys general have triggered one embarrassment after another. The NRA tried to declare bankruptcy to cushion some of these blows, with no luck.

At this point, the threat of being forced by the authorities to shut down due to alleged improprieties is minimal. But has the NRA managed to weather its financial storm?

As an accounting researcher who focuses on the financial performance of nonprofits, I have been closely studying NRA finances throughout its crisis. I can say the NRA financial picture is, as of early 2023, a mixed bag. The gun group has shored up its financial position over the last few years. However, the way in which that financial recovery came about risks hemorrhaging the NRA’s core supporters.

White men look at a machine gun on display in a crowded room with high ceilings
NRA members get to see many kinds of firearms at the group’s annual conventions — even machine guns. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

Digging out of a financial hole

The NRA’s financial troubles arose at the same time that scandalous aspects of the organization’s woes — such as longtime NRA leader Wayne LaPierre’s free yacht getaways and luxury suit purchases billed to an NRA contractor — were drawing public attention.

Perhaps the best measure of a nonprofit’s financial health is its unrestricted net assets — the money at the organization’s disposal after leaving out amounts it has to spend on activities promised to donors and what it owes to others. A multimillion-dollar unrestricted net asset reserve for an organization the size of the NRA can provide financial security. On the other hand, a negative reserve is typically a sign of serious trouble.

The NRA’s reserve was negative at the end of 2017, with a deficit of more than US$30 million — a sure sign of the troubles already underway. Such a negative balance indicates that after satisfying donor promises, the organization owes more money to others than the value of its assets.

Things only got worse in the following two years, with the NRA approaching an unrestricted net asset deficit of nearly $50 million in 2019. This degree of weakness even led the organization to suggest that it risked imminent failure. However, there was time for a turnaround.

And that’s what happened. In 2020, the NRA slashed its unrestricted net asset deficit by over $38 million. Ironically, it was shortly after pulling off this marked improvement that it filed — unsuccessfully — for bankruptcy.

This financial resurgence continued in 2021, with the organization reporting it had eliminated its unrestricted net asset deficit, building up a surplus of over $10 million. When also including the money set aside for specific uses stipulated by donors — the group’s net assets — the NRA’s total available funds reached over $75 million.

These developments may seemingly bode well for the organization’s ability to withstand its continuing financial troubles. Below the surface, however, there’s an ominous trend.

Selective cost cutting

How did the NRA get on a steadier financial footing?

It wasn’t through growth. NRA revenue declined in 2020 by 4% from $296 million to $284 million, even without taking inflation into account. Revenue fell another 18% to under $234 million in 2021.

Instead, it cut many core programs, including education and training, field services, law enforcement initiatives and recreational shooting.

Cost cutting can help stabilize faltering companies or nonprofits, depending on which costs they cut. The NRA’s over 4 million dues-paying members may tolerate lean spending only on certain things and only for so long. What the NRA spent on programs fell by $45 million — more than a 35% decline — in 2020. The organization was quick to attribute the change to the nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, program spending declined even further in 2021, when life had begun to return to normal, especially for gun enthusiasts. The NRA spent just $75 million on its programs in 2021, nearly $53 million less than it had two years earlier.

It didn’t cut all costs during these lean years.

Administrative spending in the “legal, audit and taxes” category skyrocketed, from just over $4 million in 2017 to almost $47 million in 2021. Much of this reflects the money NRA paid for its various legal entanglements, largely in fees to its new legal team.

What once was a member-focused organization has quickly become an organization whose primary growth area is legal fees.

Was 2022 a turning point?

Though the NRA apparently shored up its bottom line, its financial neglect of programs like firearms training, competitions and field services could ultimately disappoint its members and donors.

The organization has seen membership dues decline in the past several years, with a loss of more than 1 million members since the start of the crisis. I see a risk of a downward spiral: lower revenue, leading to less spending on programs, which leads to further declines in member dues, donations and so on.

The full NRA financial filing for 2022 is not yet available, but there are early signs that it may have been a turning point.

Journalist Stephen Gutowski has reported at The Reload that NRA membership declines meant that even with its more lean spending profile, the organization was poised to end 2022 at a loss.

I believe that with fewer members and fewer items left to cut, the NRA may take more drastic steps in the years ahead. And, with 2022 having been an election year — prime time for the NRA to take center stage — declining funds prevented an all-out political spending blitz.

Though it may once have seemed like the NRA would suddenly implode due to its weak finances, its decline today is more of a slow burn that’s diminishing its scale and threatens its future. The growth of other pro-gun groups, such as Gun Owners of America and the Second Amendment Foundation, poses further risks for a shrinking NRA.

In my view, the NRA’s risky strategy of cutting program costs while spending more on legal battles could portend a further and continued weakening of the organization in the years ahead.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The Conversation

The Box Checker Fumbles

Posted on by Josh Marshall

As Nicole LaFond explains in today’s Morning Memo (David Kurtz is on vacation), Ron DeSantis has got his first big fumble in his presidential roll out. He staked out an aggressively anti-Ukraine position on the conflict and American involvement in that conflict, going as far as to label it a “territorial dispute” and suggest no real U.S. interests at stake. This is in line with most Republicans in the Trump wing of the party and not surprising. But he got major pushback from a number of Senate Republicans and GOP foreign policy hands. So he shifted gears, now saying that the Russian invasion is really pretty bad after all, identifying Putin as a “war criminal” who must be “held accountable.” As Nicole notes, this is grist for Trump’s virtuoso taunting and pillorying. He commits the ultimate sin in the Trump GOP — admitting error, retreating rather than going on the offensive. Trump can do that. Because he’s Trump. But no one else can.

Continue reading “The Box Checker Fumbles” →

Another Delay. At Least.

Posted on by Josh Marshall

Insider is reporting that while the New York City grand jury dealing with the Trump “hush money” case is meeting today, it won’t be working on the Trump case. That means nothing new is likely to happen in the case until Monday at the earliest. (The grand jury has been meeting on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Grand juries routinely work on multiple cases at once.) What does this mean? I have no idea. Assuming the Insider report is correct, my best guess is that the reporting predicting an imminent indictment is still broadly correct. It was just off on the day it would happen, helped along in large part by Trump’s claim that he would be “arrested” Tuesday, March 21. That’s my pretty strong assumption: That there is still going to be a New York City indictment. But really who knows?

Arizona Supreme Court Just Barely Keeps Limping Kari Lake Election Lawsuit Alive

Posted on by Kate Riga

The Arizona Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected most of unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake’s latest attempt to overturn the results of the state’s 2022 election. 

Continue reading “Arizona Supreme Court Just Barely Keeps Limping Kari Lake Election Lawsuit Alive” →

Alleged Santos Accomplice on the Run from Child Torture Charge

Posted on by Josh Marshall

There’s a dark coda to one of the latest tales in the legend of Rep. George Santos (R-NY). As you will remember, a good bit of December and January were taken up by the ongoing saga of Santos and the slow unraveling of a life made up of a long litany of fabrications and criminal behavior. One of the last big stories to come out on Santos was about his alleged role as a mastermind of an ATM fraud ring in Seattle, allegedly working with a one-time roommate named Gustavo Ribeiro Trelha.

Trelha was arrested for running the fraud scheme in 2017. Santos was questioned by investigators probing the scheme and he later testified on Ribeiro’s behalf. Trelha eventually pled guilty, served seven months in jail and was deported to Brazil in early 2018. Once Santos became an international sensation, Trelha came forward to submit a sworn declaration to federal authorities changing his story and now accusing Santos of being the mastermind of the fake ATM card racket.

Continue reading “Alleged Santos Accomplice on the Run from Child Torture Charge” →

DeSantis Reveals He Can Be Bullied 

Posted on by Nicole LaFond

A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.

Ammo For Trump

For big picture purposes, let me just make this clear off the bat: Ron DeSantis’ position on U.S. support for Ukraine is still unclear. But that is largely beside the point. 

Over the course of the last week and a half, the Florida governor has been roundly criticized by fellow Republicans for an answer he gave in a Tucker Carlson questionnaire about his stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the U.S.’s support for Ukraine’s military. His response at the time was more telling about his 2024 campaign strategy than his actual beliefs about the war. In remarks to Carlson, DeSantis characterized Russia’s year-long deadly invasion of Ukraine as a “territorial dispute” and argued that supporting Ukraine’s defense was not necessarily in the U.S.’s best interest. Here’s the full quote:

“While the U.S. has many vital national interests—securing our borders, addressing the crisis of readiness within our military, achieving energy security and independence, and checking the economic, cultural and military power of the Chinese Communist Party—becoming further entangled in a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of them.”

The remark confused some Republicans and supporters who have been following DeSantis’ positioning for longer than the past year. Back when DeSantis was a congressman from Florida, he was incensed by Russia’s annexation of Crimea and frequently attacked the Obama administration, claiming it wasn’t doing enough to punish Russia for the occupation. 

But the rationale for the about-face earlier this month is fairly obvious. Carlson often uses his show to promote pro-Putin propaganda — a year ago a leaked memo revealed the Kremlin had been advising Russian state media to broadcast Carlson segments as often as possible — and has been highly critical of the Biden administration’s support for Ukraine. 

So on one hand, DeSantis knew his audience and was likely hoping to appeal to Carlson’s viewership, which has been bathed in the Fox News host’s anti-Ukraine sentiment for over a year. But he’s also trying to make inroads with Trump supporters before he officially challenges the former president for the Republican nomination. When Carlson’s team asked Trump if “opposing Russia in Ukraine” was “a vital American national strategist interest,” Trump held to his isolationist stance: “No, but it is for Europe.”

Other far-right MAGA Republicans like Sens. Josh Hawley (R-MO), J.D. Vance (R-OH) and Freedom Caucus members in the House have become increasingly critical of the U.S.’s military support for Ukraine, with some calling for it to end. 

But Republican foreign policy hawks were quick to pounce on DeSantis for his position on Ukraine, and publicly lambasted the Florida Republican for it — John Cornyn said he was “disturbed” by DeSantis’ remarks, Marco Rubio suggested the governor wasn’t experienced enough in foreign policy to have an opinion, etc. 

And it appears it’s all getting to DeSantis. During his interview with Piers Morgan this week, which will air in its entirety tomorrow, DeSantis cleaned up his remarks. He called Putin a “war criminal” who should be “held accountable” and admitted he could have been clearer about the whole “territorial dispute” thing.

The bigger point is that DeSantis, in caving to criticism, proved that he’s capable of being shamed — a massive vulnerability and character flaw in today’s MAGA Republican Party that Trump will surely feast upon.  

Related

During a Senate hearing Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken reacted to news of the International Criminal Court’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for Putin, saying European countries should detain Putin and turn him over to the ICC should he visit. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) asked the Biden administration official if he would “encourage our European allies to turn him over.”

“Anyone who is a party to the court and has obligations should fulfill their obligations,” Blinken said. 

Corcoran Testimony

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld a lower court ruling compelling a Trump attorney to sit for grand jury testimony and hand over documents to special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation. The lawyer, Evan Corcoran, is likely to testify Friday.

Indictment Watch

Business Insider was the first to report the news that the panel of jurors weighing an indictment of Trump over the hush payments did not meet Wednesday. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg did reportedly tell the grand jury to still stand by for Thursday and reports indicate the panel will meet today.

The panel last met on Monday when it heard testimony from Robert Costello, Michael Cohen’s former lawyer whom Trump’s team brought in to poke holes in Cohen’s credibility and testimony. Cohen, who already served time for charges related to the hush money payments, has been a key prosecution witness. It is not unusual for a grand jury to shift its schedule to accommodate witness testimony. 

The Amount Of People Who Have Sent Me This 

Someone used AI to create fake images of Trump getting arrested and they went viral.

UPDATE: A Journalist Believes He Was Banned From Midjourney After His AI Images Of Donald Trump Getting Arrested Went Viral

Grain Of Salt But …

There are reports that indicate otherwise, but Trump does Live For The Drama:

Thank You Hunter

Send some strength and good vibes to my colleague Hunter Walker who slogged through seven years of the swampy, racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic grime that is North Carolina Lieutenant Gov. Mark Robinson’s (R) Facebook footprint for your outrage and reading pleasure. Bonus: 

A must read.

Don’t Say Guilty

The now-former Republican state lawmaker who wrote the “Don’t Say Gay” bill that gave DeSantis all the ammo he needed to declare his war on wokeness in Florida and start a ghost 2024 campaign, pleaded guilty to COVID-19 relief-related fraud charges this week. Ex-state Rep. Joseph Harding faces up to 35 years in prison for the federal felony charges. 

RELATED: DeSantis to expand ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law to high schools

For Everyone Having ‘The Last Of Us’ Withdrawals 

New alert from the CDC:

Trump Lawyer Personally In Comms With House Republicans

Mere hours after Trump raised baseless conspiracy theories on Truth Social arguing that the Biden DOJ was doing shady coordination with the Manhattan DA’s office, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) was On The Case. He and other House Republicans sent a letter to Bragg’s office on Monday demanding Bragg answer to the conspiracy theory. The letter was so over-the-top misleading that Bragg, who rarely speaks publicly, responded to the letter with a statement saying his office wasn’t “intimidated” by the House GOP’s various attempts to run interference for Trump. 

Well, it appears Jordan may have had a bit of a heads up on how to respond to reports of the indictment. Per the New York Times:

Mr. Trump’s lawyers have quietly pushed the Republican-led House to intervene. Last month, a Trump lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, wrote to Mr. Jordan calling on Congress to investigate the “egregious abuse of power” by what he called a “rogue local district attorney,” according to a copy of the letter obtained by The New York Times.

Democrats aren’t happy. This from WaPo’s Greg Sargent:

Though that doesn’t prove collaboration, congressional aides tell me Democrats will seize on any hearings to publicly grill Republicans on whether they have been communicating with Trump’s legal team and if so, how.

You’ve Learned Nothing Jon Snow

A former Trump White House aide Sarah Matthews — who served as deputy press secretary for a time — laid into Trump for his latest incitement of violence on Truth Social. 

“I think it goes to show he’s learned nothing in the aftermath of Jan. 6,” Matthews said on CNN. “The rhetoric he was using was similar to the rhetoric he used around Jan. 6. I think in his Truth Social post he said that they needed to protest to ‘take back our nation.’”

“I do think at the same time we’re probably not going to see the same response from his supporters that we saw regarding Jan. 6,” she added. “I don’t think it’s going to be the same level.”

Christian Nationalism

Jennifer Rubin’s compelling take on why white Christian nationalists are in such a panic:

The reality is that the convergence of the declining population of White Christians with the rise of Trump has been bad for both evangelicalism and American politics. Trump came along, telling the shrinking band of white Christian nationalists that they are victims. He reveled in nostalgia for a time when they dominated (demographically and politically) and blamed immigrants, elites and “wokeness” for their ills. They were the group most susceptible to a message that reinforces their feeling they have “lost” something or something has been “taken away.

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Michigan Is Poised To Repeal Right-To-Work, Getting Back To Its Union Roots. Will Other States Follow?

Posted on by Kate Riga

All that’s left is to dot the i’s and cross the t’s, and Michigan, powered by its shiny new Democratic trifecta, will repeal its right-to-work law. 

Continue reading “Michigan Is Poised To Repeal Right-To-Work, Getting Back To Its Union Roots. Will Other States Follow?” →