Late-night comics take shots at NC’s Mark Robinson after CNN report on lewd comments
It’s not unusual for North Carolina politicians to find themselves at the center of late-night talk-show hosts’ jokes.
Rep. Patrick McHenry was the gift that kept on giving when he slammed down his gavel in anger after his friend, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, was ousted from his leadership role in a coup led by Rep. Matt Gaetz.
Rep. Richard Hudson had already made the late-night rounds after he protected Gaetz from Rep. Mike Rogers after Gaetz failed to vote for McCarthy as House speaker in the first place.
And former Rep. Madison Cawthorn gave an embarrassing amount of fodder to the likes of the Jimmys, Seth Meyers and the Daily Show.
Now they have Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson.
On Thursday afternoon, CNN reported that Robinson posted on a porn forum about watching women shower at a gym and made many explicit, offensive and racist remarks on the site, such as that he would like to own slaves. Robinson has denied the comments are his.
The Daily Show
The Daily Show correspondent Ronny Chieng opened with clips of Robinson attacking LGBTQ+ people.
“Looks like this guy is pretty anti-the Gays,” Chieng said, “and if there’s one thing history has taught us is that if a politician is this outspoken how gross gay and trans people are, there will be nothing in his internet history that will embarrass him at all. In 3, 2, 1…”
The Daily Show then rolls tape of CNN host Jake Tapper introducing CNN’s story about Robinson’s posts on the site Nude Africa. The posts CNN tied to Robinson included comments about his “love” of transgender porn and the statement: “Yeah I”m a perv too.”
Chieng pivoted to some of the racist posts tied to Robinson: saying he’s a Black Nazi, that he would take Hitler over Obama, that slavery isn’t bad and that some people need to be slaves.
“So this guy called himself a Nazi who likes Hitler and slavery,” he said. “I take it back, maybe his base will still like him. I mean the whole thing just kind of cancels out.”
He added that this is the craziest combination of scandals he’s ever seen. But then adds that it’s all in the comment section of a porn site.
“Nobody should be writing in the comment section of a porn site,” Chieng shouts, sounding exasperated. “You know what you should be commenting on a porn site? Nothing.”
“You’re spending way too much time on porn sites if you’re getting into your views on slavery, OK?”
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
The comment section took both late-night host Stephen Colbert and CNN host Anderson Cooper by surprise as well.
The host of the Late Show with Stephen Colbert led his monologue Thursday night with jokes about the situation.
But he also brought on Cooper as a guest.
“I didn’t know porn sites had comment sections,” Cooper said, with Colbert saying he was equally surprised.
But not one to miss a joke, Colbert then added: “It’s a community, Anderson. It’s about togetherness.”
Colbert’s monologue began with a switch in the meaning of a “swing state,” before he explained how vital North Carolina is to win the White House.
North Carolina is a battleground state. President Joe Biden lost the Tar Heel State to former President Donald Trump in 2020 by just 1.3%. And while North Carolina, for decades, has usually elected Republican presidents, the margin between candidates is often very narrow.
Democrats have fully focused on winning North Carolina, and Vice President Kamala Harris has begun polling ahead of Trump in North Carolina since taking over Biden’s campaign.
Colbert referred to Republicans being worried Robinson will drag down Trump at the ballot box.
“Robinson is already trailing in the polls by 11 points because he has a lot of baggage, like this viral clip from 2020, when he pines for simpler times,” Colbert said.
Colbert then plays a clip of Robinson saying he wants to go back to an America where women couldn’t vote.
“Well, you’re halfway there, Mark, women can still vote, but I’m guessing not for you,” Colbert quips.
Colbert then leans into what Robinson has led voters to believe about him, versus what he’s said to have posted on the site Nude Africa.
“Robinson is a fundamentalist, Christian nationalist who has a lot of ideas about what you should or should not be doing in the bedroom, especially you ladies with your dangerous sexy areas,” Colbert said, making a similar hand gesture to one Robinson made on a recently surfaced video. In the video, Robinson says, “women must get this under control” while gesturing to his groin, and speaks out against access to birth control.
As for the secret peeping that Robinson reportedly admitted to, Colbert said that would be hard for Republicans to defend against.
“He just meant tossing bright yellow chicks on the ladies,” Colbert said, his voice getting higher. “Happy Easter.”
This story was originally published September 20, 2024 at 12:02 PM with the headline "Late-night comics take shots at NC’s Mark Robinson after CNN report on lewd comments."