LAS VEGAS, Nev. (WGHP) — North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who has never shied away from controversy, is hitting the road this summer to attend events helmed by groups at the frontline of the culture war and including speakers like former President Donald Trump, InfoWars host Alex Jones and actress Roseanne Barr.
Robinson launched to fame after a speech in which he admonished the Greensboro City Council for its decision to ban gun sales on city property in 2018. An examination of Robinson’s social media by the independent news site Talking Points Memo highlighted Robinson’s relationship, prior to and during the early days of his political career, with conspiracy theories and firebrand rhetoric.
While the culture war touchstones for which he became known were markedly absent from his gubernatorial campaign launch speech in Alamance County, his speeches at out-of-state, ticketed events have continued that familiar tone.
On May 13, Robinson appeared at a Georgia rally hosted by right-wing activist Lucretia Hughes called the “Faith Over Fear” rally. He spoke about his campaign for governor and perpetuated claims that hospitals are doing “transgender surgery” on children, which the Associated Press had previously fact-checked, amid a lineup of people known for denying the results of the 2020 election.
Moms for Liberty’s North Carolina chapter had Mark Robinson join them on May 17 for a Legislative Day engagement, where he spoke about his campaign and praised the group. The group handed out literature that outlined their “legislative goals” for the state and another pamphlet primarily full of misrepresented information about gender-affirming healthcare.
Soon, Robinson will head north for a national event held by the group.
Moms for Liberty
From June 29 to July 2, Moms for Liberty, an SPLC-designated extremist group accused of frequent campaigns of abuse and harassment against detractors, will be hosting the “Joyful Warriors” summit in Philadelphia, where Robinson will join Trump, Ron DeSantis and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., among other speakers. Tickets range from $249 to $499.
On Thursday, Moms for Liberty came under fire for using a quote attributed to Adolf Hitler in a newsletter an Indiana chapter distributed, and they quickly apologized.
Moms for Liberty focuses primarily on local school boards and getting materials they deem “inappropriate” removed from school libraries. In addition to reports of harassment and threats, some chapters have also been accused of having close ties with the extremist group Proud Boys and members perpetuating antisemitic conspiracies like the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
ReAwaken America Tour
And then on Aug. 25 and 26, Robinson will appear at a Las Vegas leg of the ReAwaken America Tour, a religious touring convention helmed by General Michael Flynn and Clay Clark, an entrepreneur and podcaster, that features a litany of speakers, many of them deeply tied to conspiracy theories like QAnon and “The Great Reset.”
Clark announced the addition of Robinson to the lineup on his Twitter page on Wednesday. He joins Flynn, Jones and Roseanne, as well as MyPillow founder Mike Lindell and Truth Social owner Devin Nunes. A large poster advertising the tour has numerous figures like Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Lara Logan and Roger Stone featured, though not every speaker appears to attend every tour date and there isn’t a list of specific speakers for specific dates yet.
The ReAwaken America Tour, founded in 2021 by Clark, advertises itself as “The Great Reawakening vs. The Great Reset.” Its poster features pictures of Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum, philanthropist George Soros, former President Barack Obama, Facebook co-founder and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates among others set next to the words “The Great Reset” and emblazoned with a snake.
Clark writes on the website, “The reason I started the ReAwaken America Tour and TimeToFreeAmerica.com is I felt called by God to expose “The COVID-19 / Great Reset” agenda being pushed by Bill Gates, Klaus Schwab, George Soros, China, and other elite globalists that hate God and America. The ReAwaken America Tour exists to expose the election fraud, medical fraud, religious fraud, monetary fraud and mainstream media fraud that has been used to push the “COVID-19 Great Reset Agenda.” Our call to action is to get people back to God because I believe that true repentance and salvation is needed to save this nation.”
The term “globalists” is associated both with globalization, a term used to describe the increasing interconnectedness of global economies and culture, as well as the conspiracy theory that there is a one-world government controlled by a shadowy group of elites called the “New World Order.“ This is a conspiracy often promoted on InfoWars by ReAwaken America Tour guest Alex Jones.
The Great Reset was a series of economic proposals put forward by the World Economic Forum as an idea for post-pandemic economic recovery. Schwab is quoted as saying that the pandemic represented a “rare but narrow” window of opportunity to “reflect, reimagine and reset” in order to create a more prosperous future. According to BBC, however, people latched onto the vague proposal as part of a larger conspiracy, alleging that “lockdown restrictions were introduced not to curb the spread of the virus, but to deliberately bring about economic collapse and a socialist world government, albeit run for the benefit of powerful capitalists.”
The ReAwaken America Tour website is brimming with COVID-19 references, from links that advertise “jobs you can work without a vaccination” and “apply here for a religious exemption to the vaccination” with links lower in the page that promise “the truth about mask mandates” and an advertisement for Clay Clark’s books, both about the subject of the “The Great Reset,” with one titled “The Homo Deuce: The Godless Globalist Great Reset Plan in their Own Words” with an image of Klaus Schwab photoshopped to look like Dr. Evil from the Austin Powers films.
Critics of the ReAwaken America Tour include the ADL, which describes the tour as “a series of controversial far-right conferences held across the United States featuring prominent QAnon influencers, anti-vaccination activists, election fraud conspiracy theorists, Christian pastors, political candidates and elected officials.”
PBS and the Associated Press attended a tour stop of the ReAwaken America Tour in 2022, describing it as a space where the speakers and attendees talked about inaccurate claims of election fraud, with speakers perpetuating conspiracy theories about Michelle Obama’s gender, the assassination of JFK and one referring to Democrats as “baby butchers.”
NPR describes the events as “part conservative Christian revival, part QAnon expo and part political rally.”
The website for the ReAwaken America Tour does not feature any explicit reference to QAnon or familiar QAnon vernacular such as “the storm” or catchphrases like “where we go one, we go all.” However, Clay promoted a video about “adrenochrome” on his Twitter on Wednesday, the same day he announced Robinson’s attendance at the tour. The video, featuring actor Jim Caviezel and Steve Bannon of his podcast War Room, discusses the QAnon belief that there are “elites” that harvest the chemical adrenochrome from children to use in rituals.
Additionally, “The Great Awakening,” while historically used to describe periods of American Christian revival, is also a phrase commonly used by QAnon, describing a time in which they believe the masses will “wake up” to their beliefs and rise up against the shadowy cabal.
Mark Robinson’s campaign website does not feature any upcoming events, nor has his social media promoted his appearances at either convention. WGHP reached out to Robinson’s campaign for comment about his attendance at these events but did not receive a reply.
