NC’s Mark Robinson as Trump’s VP? Please, yes, and heck no | Opinion

Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson for … vice president?

It’s probably a long shot, but some people are talking about it.

A conservative commentator floated the idea in a recent Fox News segment, naming Robinson in conjunction with former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin as possible running mates for Donald Trump in 2024. Sebastian Gorka, who briefly served as an adviser in the Trump White House, praised Robinson’s “fire and brimstone” on social media last month and suggested he should be Trump’s next vice president. A story from The Atlantic last year also listed Robinson as a possible running mate for Trump, and Robinson himself even mentioned in his 2022 memoir that there have been calls for him to be placed on a ticket as vice president.

The Carolina Journal, a conservative statewide news outlet, reported last week that Robinson is “flattered by the speculation.” However, Robinson is reportedly “laser-focused” on his 2024 gubernatorial campaign in 2024, and he is widely considered the GOP frontrunner in that race.

A VP nod seems unlikely, but It’s not a total stretch. Robinson already has a strong relationship with Trump. The former president pledged to endorse Robinson for governor, and Robinson returned the favor by endorsing Trump for president earlier this year.

But for many North Carolinians, the thought of Robinson being anywhere near the White House is unsettling. Despite holding a largely ceremonial role as lieutenant governor, he has embarrassed our state countless times over the past few years, attracting national attention for his outlandish views and disparaging comments about LGBTQ+ people.

There is at least one upside, though. Making Mark Robinson vice president could be like making Jonah Ryan vice president in the TV show “Veep.” The characters joked that there was “no safer place” to stick Ryan, basically the show’s equivalent of Matt Gaetz, because “being vice-president is like being declawed, defanged, neutered, ball-gagged and sealed in an abandoned coal mine under two miles of human s--t.”

In other words, the role of vice president is a relatively benign one. Constitutionally speaking, the vice president doesn’t have many explicit powers, nor any direct role in the policymaking process (unless there is a tie in the Senate). In fact, being vice president wouldn’t be altogether different from what Robinson does as lieutenant governor. And the truth is, he doesn’t do much of anything now besides traverse the state and country spreading hate and conspiracy theories. That’s plenty dangerous in itself, of course. But he has no real say over legislation, and Republican state lawmakers don’t exactly defer to him as their de facto leader, either.

For that reason, a Vice President Mark Robinson might be preferable to a Gov. Mark Robinson. North Carolina has a relatively weak governor — which is being further weakened by GOP legislative power grabs — but Robinson would still have quite a bit of power if elected. He could be a green light for harmful legislation coming out of a GOP-led state legislature, and he would have the power to make appointments to various state agencies, boards and commissions.

Still, there are cons to Robinson as VP. Big cons. Though Robinson has already cultivated a strong national profile, being on the GOP ticket would give him an even larger bully pulpit. It would speed up his already rapid political ascension — Robinson was virtually unknown before a video of him speaking at a city council meeting went viral in 2018.

And here’s what’s most disturbing: being vice president would put Robinson second in line to the presidency. If anything happened to Trump, Robinson would become the leader of the free world. And just as lieutenant governor can be a stepping stone to the governor’s mansion, the vice presidency has been a launching pad for many presidents.

A Trump-Robinson ticket would be a jarring portrait of just how extreme the Republican Party has become — and how willing its members are to embrace or excuse politicians who use their platforms to propagate bigotry and dangerous lies. Having Robinson in the White House might be good for North Carolina, but the rest of the country might never forgive us.