FACT CHECK: Video Showing Mark Robinson Talking About Women And Voting Is Taken Out Of Context

Elias Atienza | Senior Reporter

A video shared on X by the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) War Room claims to show North Carolina Republican gubernatorial nominee Mark Robinson saying he supports the time when women couldn’t vote.

Verdict: Misleading

Robinson was making a point about Republicans being responsible for social change. In the same video, he also said he was a Republican because of the 19th Amendment.

Fact Check:

Robinson, the lieutenant governor of North Carolina, won the GOP nomination for the governorship, according to The New York Times. He has made inflammatory and controversial remarks, the outlet reported.

The DNC War Room shared a video on X that is captioned, “Mark Robinson, GOP candidate for North Carolina Governor: I absolutely want to go back to the America where women couldn’t vote.” (RELATED: Fact-Checking Trump’s Claim He’s He’s Been Indicted More Times Than Al Capone)

However, this video is taken out of context. Robinson’s full remarks show that he was giving Republicans credit for social change and the 13th, 14th, 15th and 19th Amendments.

His full quote reads:

“This idiotic guy was on stage with Candace Owens a few days ago and asked her, ‘What America are we going back to to make America great again? The one where women couldn’t vote or Black people were swinging from cheap trees?’ I would say to him if I was standing in front of him, ‘I absolutely want to go back to the America where women couldn’t vote.’ Do you know why? Because in those days, we had people who fought for real social change and they were called Republicans. And they are the reason why women can vote today.”

He further said, “I’m a Republican because of the 13th, 14th, 15th Amendments to the Constitution and the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.” From his remarks, he was giving Republicans credit for getting women the right to vote and for the passage of post-Civil War amendments that ended slavery, provided for equal protection under the law and gave the right to vote to African-American men.

The remarks were covered by HuffPost, which initially ran the headline “Mark Robinson: ‘I Absolutely Want To Go Back To The America Where Women Couldn’t Vote.'” The headline was later changed to “Mark Robinson’s Bizarre Ramble: ‘I Absolutely Want To Go Back To The America Where Women Couldn’t Vote.'”

Other journalists pointed out that Robinson’s remarks were taken out of context.

Andy Kaczynski, a CNN reporter, said on X that the “clip going around of Mark Robinson” was “taken out of context.”

“The clip going around of Mark Robinson saying he wants to go back to a time when women couldn’t vote is out of context. If you read the full quote, he was, in fact, giving Republicans credit for getting women the right to vote. He has such a long history of inflammatory comments why one out of context?” Kaczynski wrote.

Bulwark White House correspondent Andrew Egger said on X that “it’s plain he *wasn’t* saying he thinks women should lose the vote.”

“Okay, look, Robinson did in fact say all these words in this order, but if you watch the clip it’s plain he *wasn’t* saying he thinks women should lose the vote. He was making a way too cute point about how he wants Republicans to see themselves as fighters for social change,” Egger tweeted.

John McCormack, senior editor at the Dispatch, also addressed the video, saying in a tweet that “the full quotation” shows “Robinson was crediting the GOP for women’s suffrage and said he’s a Republican *because of* the 19th amendment giving women the right to vote.”

Snopes also fact-checked the Robinson video. Snopes reported that the clip was “misleading in that it was missing context” and that Robinson’s “full remarks reveal that he was not against women having the right to vote but rather was making a larger point about the role that he believed Republicans played in the passage of the 19th Amendment.”

A Robinson campaign spokesman told Check Your Fact, “[t]his partisan hit-piece from the HuffPost is a pack of lies.”

“Watch the speech: while running to become the first black lieutenant governor of North Carolina, Mark Robinson spoke to a group of Republican women encouraging them to look to the legacy of the Republican Party leading the way in passing the 19th amendment giving women the right to vote, ending the Democrats’ racist Jim Crow laws and more,” the spokesman said.

He added, “Anyone spinning this any other way is just playing more Democrat word games to smear Mark Robinson instead of talking about the real issues in this election – growing our economy, strengthening schools and making streets safer.”

Check Your Fact reached out to an email associated with the DNC for comment. (RELATED: Claims Of Mass IDF Casualties Lack Evidence)

Elias Atienza

Senior Reporter
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