Charlotte Observer Ial Board: Lt. Gov Mark Robinson disgraces NC again with post about Pelosi attack

Nov. 2—North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson keeps proving there's no limit to his shamelessness.

In a meme shared to his personal Facebook page — which has 132,000 followers — Robinson poked fun at the recent attack on the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The image depicts a mock Halloween costume for an "attacker," complete with underwear, a hammer and a "lame story to tell the press."

"I'm sorry Paul I don't believe you or the press!!!!" Robinson wrote in the post, which has received nearly 7,000 likes.

The speaker's husband, Paul Pelosi, was attacked with a hammer last week by a man who broke into the couple's San Francisco home. The attacker reportedly stormed into the couple's bedroom shouting "Where is Nancy?" Paul Pelosi suffered multiple injuries and underwent surgery to repair a skull fracture as a result of the attack.

As of Monday, federal prosecutors have filed multiple charges against the assailant, including assault and attempted kidnapping of a U.S. government official. According to court filings, the assailant viewed Speaker Pelosi as the "leader of the pack" of lies told by the Democratic Party and said he wanted to "break her kneecaps" to send a message to other Democrats.

As a prominent Democratic leader, Pelosi has long been a target of Republicans, and rioters on Jan. 6 were shouting her name in the U.S. Capitol. One rioter was caught on video saying "we were looking for Nancy to shoot her in the frickin' brain. But we didn't find her." Anti-Pelosi ads flood the airwaves during every election cycle, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy joked last year that it "will be hard not to hit" Pelosi with the gavel if Republicans take control of the House after the midterms and he becomes speaker.

In addition to his typical disparaging comments about nearly everyone and everything he disagrees with, Robinson himself has previously said that Pelosi "hates America." That kind of rhetoric is what has fueled a recent increase in political violence, perhaps including the incident at the Pelosi home last week.

Robinson is far from the only Republican to minimize this particular instance of political violence. There are plenty of other examples: Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin said last week that "there's no room for violence anywhere, but we're going to send [Pelosi] back to be with him in California." Donald Trump, Jr. cracked a few jokes of his own, which included sharing a conspiracy theory about the attacker being Paul Pelosi's gay lover. Kari Lake, the Trump-backed Republican nominee for Arizona governor, mocked the lack of protection at the Pelosi home.

All the while, Paul Pelosi remains in intensive care, with a long recovery ahead of him. What's funny about that?

This would be a great moment for Republicans to accept that their rhetoric has consequences. Republicans often say they don't intend for their comments to lead to violence, but they habitually fail to speak up when it does. The same goes for Robinson's fellow Republicans in North Carolina, who look the other way every time Robinson makes headlines. And the problem keeps getting worse.

This isn't hard. Robinson could have easily been like Sen. Thom Tillis, who correctly condemned the attack as "beyond disgusting and reprehensible." That's what leaders do. But instead of choosing the decent path, Robinson is making fun of the attack — and casting doubt on whether it really happened at all. That's disgraceful, especially coming from the highest-ranking Republican in our state.

In a job with few official duties, Robinson is mostly known for one thing: using his bully pulpit to be, well, a bully. It's something we've come to expect from our lieutenant governor, but we shouldn't normalize it. The rest of Robinson's party shouldn't either.