Article Summary –
Former workers at porn shops in Greensboro allege that Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson frequently visited these stores in the 1990s and early 2000s to watch pornography and purchase bootleg videos, claims that Robinson denies. Eyewitnesses, including multiple former store employees, report seeing Robinson up to five times a week and claim he spent significant money on previewing pornographic content, contradicting Robinson’s current political stance on morality and LGBTQ issues. Despite Robinson’s campaign aggressively denying these allegations, a 2022 interaction between Robinson and one of the former employees, Louis Money, who took a photo with Robinson and referenced an unpaid debt for a bootleg video, further complicates the narrative.
Former Workers Claim NC Gubernatorial Candidate Mark Robinson Regular at Greensboro Porn Shops
In the 1990s, Mark Robinson worked at Papa John’s pizza on South Holden Road in Greensboro.
According to eyewitness accounts, Robinson, now the Republican nominee for governor of North Carolina, visited Gents Video & News and I-40 Video & News up to five times a week during the 90s and early 2000s to watch porn in private booths – sometimes with pizza in hand.
“Every night that I worked, which would have been five nights a week, I saw Mark,” Louis Money, a former employee at the stores, told The Assembly.
Money also said Robinson, the state’s current lieutenant governor, purchased “hundreds” of bootleg porn videos.
While five other men who were also employees or customers of the stores during this time backed up Money’s claims, Robinson and his campaign have aggressively denied ever visiting the porn shops.
“It’s false tabloid trash,” Robinson told radio host KC O’Dea on Wednesday.
Robinson Spent A Lot of Money at Gents
In his 2022 memoir, We Are the Majority, Robinson addressed his past financial struggles, including three bankruptcies.
Robinson admitted to bad money management, stating he often wasted money.
According to Money, Robinson would usually pay for two $8 previews during each visit to Gents.
If Robinson did typically stop by five days a week and buy two previews, as Money says, this means Robinson would have spent $80 per week paying for pornography — more than $150 per week in today’s dollars.
“He was spending a good amount of money,” Money said.
At I-40, Scott Andrews, who also worked alongside Money, described Robinson as a “pretty regular” customer there.
Robinson Was Homophobic Back Then
Since his emergence in North Carolina politics, Robinson has made disparaging remarks about the LGBTQ community.
“God formed me because he knew there was going to be a time when God’s learning was going to be intolerable to the wicked. When children were going to be dragged down to go see the drag show. When pornography was going to be presented to our children in schools,” he said last year.
In the 1990s, when Robinson frequented porn shops, those who remember him say that while he was funny, his jokes often came at the expense of LGBTQ people.
“I hate to admit this, but he was very homophobic,” Money told The Assembly.
Despite these homophobic remarks then and now, Money claims Robinson carved out exceptions to his homophobia.
“I know he might have problems with gay people, but I don’t think he has problems with lesbians,” Money noted.
Robinson’s 2022 Interaction with Money Contradicts His Campaign’s Denial
In the campaign’s response to The Assembly’s article, campaign spokesperson Mike Lonergan described Money’s claims as “bullshit” and called him a “freak show grifter.”
Money acknowledged that he asked Robinson for “a free pizza here and there,” but pointed to a 2022 interaction to show that their relationship was not as the campaign depicted.
According to Money, Robinson approached him in November 2022 at a Planet Fitness in High Point. The two took a photograph together, which Money posted to social media with the caption: “I disagree politically with this guy. However, we have always been cool. That’s Our Lt. Governor who still owes me money lol.”
“I was like, ‘Dude, I’m so proud of you, man,’” Money recalled. “‘I disagree with you. But I’m proud of what you accomplished for yourself.’”
Money Recorded a Music Video About Robinson Owing Him Money
Money told The Assembly that the last time Robinson visited I-40, he bought a bootleg video that was “too explicit to be sold in North Carolina at the time.”
He says Robinson never paid for the last $25 video, a fact he brought up in their 2022 interaction.
“I was like, ‘I’m so glad that you didn’t pay me,’” Money recalled. “‘I tell everybody in the world that, you know, the lieutenant governor owes me money, so I don’t even want your money anymore.’”
Money claims the lieutenant governor laughed in response. But when he mentioned making a music video about it, Robinson didn’t laugh, Money said.
This year, Money recorded the music video he alluded to in the 2022 interaction, titled “The Lt. Governor Owes Me Money.”
A Direct Contradiction to Robinson’s Rhetoric as a Candidate
As a candidate for office, Robinson has often lamented the decline in morality in America and discussed the need to more directly center God in our society.
He has gone as far as to blame school shootings on the lack of Christianity in schools, and has described school officials and teachers as “all-powerful bureaucrats … who believe it’s OK to feed your children a steady diet of communism and pornography.”
While Robinson writes in his memoir that he converted to Christianity in the 1980s, The Assembly story reveals Robinson visited Gents and I-40 more than a decade later.
Andrews believes Robinson is running from his past.
“It’s like he’s embarrassed of who he used to be or whatever. I spent years as a Christian, too, but I didn’t run for office and get in pulpits and shout about all the craziness I used to do and yell at people for it,” he said.
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