GOP candidate for North Carolina governor Mark Robinson remembered as ‘regular’ visitor to adult video shop
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, a candidate for governor in the state, was remembered as a regular patron of an adult video store in the 1990s — a charge he has vehemently denied.
Still, six men who worked at or frequented Gents Video & News in Greensboro remember Robinson as a cheerful presence in the store who came by about five nights a week to watch videos after his shift at Papa Johns.
Money, a former employee of a sex shop, told The Meeting that Robinson even brought free pizza and told jokes in the style of 80s comedian Andrew ‘Dice’ Clay.
The employee even recorded a song about it his recollection of Robinson’s unpaid bill, called ‘The lieutenant governor owes me money’ with his band Trailer Park Orchestra.
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who is running for governor of the state in November, strongly denies allegations that he was a regular patron of an adult video store in the 1990s.
Robinson is known for spreading conspiracy theories and a number of anti-Semitic, homophobic and sexist remarks, but has also received the support of Donald Trump, who called him “Martin Luther King on steroids.”
Louis Money – real name – pleaded guilty to drug charges in 2018 and 2021 and was charged with nine criminal offences in total.
Money also recorded a song about his remembrance of Robinson’s unpaid bill, aptly titled ‘The lieutenant governor owes me money’ with his band Trailer Park Orchestra.
Spokesman Mark Lonergan called the allegations “bulls***” and “Democrat activist fan fiction.” He also referred to the reporters of the original story and Money as “degenerates.”
However, Money claims that Robinson not only went to see “one movie a week,” but that he also bought “super hardcore” films on the black market that he sold on the side.
He even once neglected to pay him $25, prompting him to make a music video in which a Robinson lookalike appears in a video store while his band plays.
“I made you a bootleg. I did it all the time. Most of the time you paid me. I guess it, uh, escaped your notice,” is a sample of the song’s lyrics.
Money considers himself a political independent who appreciates Robinson as a person, but not necessarily his conservative political views.
He’s not even interested in the $25 he wants back. Money just thought it would be a “funny story” that would give his band free promotion.
Robinson wrote, without giving specific details, that he lived a life of sin even after professing his faith in Jesus in the 1980s.
The scandalous story comes from Louis Money, an employee at Gents Video & News (pictured under a different name in 2012) in Greensboro, who is now sensationalizing his allegations in a music video for a song called “The Lt. Governor Owes Me Money” by his band Trailer Park Orchestra
“I didn’t have a drastic conversion like some, though. My behavior didn’t change right away. They say sin is fun for a season, and I was in that season.”
In 2021, he even told a local church that “when I got saved, the devil moved even more in my life,” before God told him to stop.
“I remained disobedient after I was saved. And I’m not ashamed to say so.”
Money, who worked at and managed several adult video stores in the area for 15 years starting in 1992, said Robinson would come by, stay for hours and watch so-called “previews” of dirty videos for $8 a clip.
“Every night I worked, which was five nights a week, I saw Mark. He spent a lot of money.”
He also claimed that based on what he bought, “I know he has a problem with homosexuals, but I don’t think he has a problem with lesbians.”
Lonergan admitted that Robinson knew Money, but claims it was only an attempt to get free pizza and hang out at the Papa Johns where Robinson worked.
I think I went into that [Papa Johns] “Once in all the time I knew him,” Money said.
A spokesman for Robinson emphatically denied the claims: “It is a categorical ‘no’ to all of The Assembly’s ridiculous accusations, based on the word of a man with a long history of drug dealing and criminal charges, who will do anything for free publicity and free pizza.
Money last met Robinson in November 2022, when the lieutenant governor greeted him and stopped to pose for a photo, he claims.
He also claimed that you “know that’s bullshit” because Papa Johns only serves takeout and there’s no room to hang out.
The story names five other customers and employees of Gents. None of them appear to share Robinson’s political views, but none have donated to his campaign. They say they saw the lieutenant governor in the store all the time.
They all remember Robinson as a nice man and often very funny, even if they found some of his jokes homophobic.
“He had about five or six of us up front laughing at four in the morning. Almost like stand-up comedy—not copying Andrew Dice Clay, but almost like an Andrew Dice Clay comedy bit,” Money recalled.
Money last met Robinson in November 2022, when the lieutenant governor greeted him and stopped to pose for a photo, he claims.
“It was cool to see an old friend today. We disagree on politics but you’ve always been cool to me,” Money wrote on social media at the time.
Money claims the whole chaos surrounding the video clip is just an “inside joke” he’s spreading to promote his band.
He says now, ‘I don’t know if he still watches porn. You know, people change in 20 years.’
Lt. Gov. Robinson speaks at a Trump rally on March 2, 2024. The former president endorsed Robinson in the governor’s race and called him MLK “on steroids” at the rally
Much has been written about Robinson’s conspiracy theories, but this may be the first audio recording in which he discusses conspiracy theories about Pearl Harbor and Patton.
Robinson then argued that President Franklin Roosevelt’s decision to enter World War II was part of a communist plot to aid Stalin.
It is well documented that Robinson has referenced conspiracy theories in the past.
He previously claimed in a post that he was “skeptical” about “everything” he saw on TV, including 9/11, and the assassination of JFK and the 2017 Las Vegas shooting.
Robinson also wrote that he does not believe the moon landing was staged or that 9/11 was an “inside job,” but wrote that if he found out it was true, he would… ‘wouldn’t be surprised.’
The right-wing conservative activist is also a polarizing figure who has come under fire for his past comments about women, Jews, Muslims and members of the LGBTQ community.
Before running for lieutenant governor in 2020, Robinson once wrote that the movie Black Panther ‘made by an agnostic Jew and filmed by satanic Marxists.’
In another post, Robinson wrote “This nonsense about Hitler disarming MILLIONS of Jews and then sending them to concentration camps is nonsense.”
Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein is running against Robinson in the general election
While it has been raised by critics, Robinson appears to be making a point about gun control and pre-Nazi restrictions in this case. His campaign said he has never denied the Holocaust.
After the 2016 Pulse Nightclub shooting in Florida, which left 49 people dead, he wrote that homosexuality was “STILL a horrible sin” and that he would “NOT participate in any ‘celebration of gay pride.'”
He also claimed that Ellen DeGeneres, who is openly gay, was a “high-level demon.”
In posts following the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Robinson called the survivors “spoiled, angry, know-it-all CHILDREN” and “media prostitutes.
Robinson won the Republican nomination for governor of North Carolina on Super Tuesday in March.
He has the support of Donald Trump, who described Robinson as “Martin Luther King on steroids” when he endorsed him at a rally in Greensboro before the primaries.
Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein is running against Robinson in the general election.