MAGA candidate for governor in North Carolina was a regular at the porn shop: Employee

North Carolina Republican gubernatorial candidate and current Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson purchased “hundreds” of pirated porn videos in the 1990s and early 2000s and visited a porn store nearly every day of the week, a new report reveals.

Robinson ran on his evangelical Christian views and ultra-MAGA politics, receiving strong support from Donald Trump.

Five men who worked at or frequented two 24-hour video porn shops in Greensboro – Gents Video & News and I-40 Video & News – told the North Carolina Assembly that Robinson often stopped by a nearby pizzeria after work.

Louis Money, a former employee, told the outlet that Robinson often bought two or more “previews,” or a screening in a private booth, over the course of a night.

The future lieutenant governor also bought “hundreds” of illegal porn videos that Money sold on the side, he said.

He told Raleigh station WRAL that Robinson’s taste was “only in straight American porn.”

“And I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t like good old American porn,” he continued. “So, no, he shouldn’t [judged]. He should be judged for everything else, but not for this.”

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Robinson, a Donald Trump supporter and avowed evangelical Christian, takes a hard-line stance on everything from abortion to members of the LGBTQ+ community, whom he once called “scum.”

“I know he may have problems with gays, but I don’t think he has problems with lesbians,” Money told the Assembly.

Robinson also rails against the practice of teaching students about gender identity and sexual orientation in public schools, calling books that deal with the subject “borderline child pornography.” If elected, he would be the state’s first black governor.

In his 2022 memoir, Robinson explained that he became a devout Christian in the 1980s but that it took him longer to find his faith than most. When he was saved, he was a young married father of two. In 2021, he told an audience at a Baptist church that “the devil intervened in my life twice soon after.”

“[God] told me what to do,” he continued, loudly Assembly. “When I did something wrong, there was this voice in the back of my head saying, ‘Stop! Stop! Stop!’ And I continued to disobey even after I was rescued. And I’m not ashamed to say that.”

Both of the shops he reportedly frequented have since closed, having gone the way of most video porn shops in the Internet age. “I don’t know if he still watches porn,” Money said. “You know, people change in 20 years.”

Money has since become the frontman of a Greensboro band called Trailer Park Orchestra, which released a song called “The Lt. Governor Owes Me Money” earlier this year.

He insisted on both the Assembly and WRAL that the song is based on a true story about $25 Robinson never paid him for the last bootleg tape he bought from him in 2004. However, he admitted to WRAL that he was “promoting his band” and trying to make money off the song by getting his story out to the press.

On Election Day in November 2022, Robinson went to a Planet Fitness in High Point, where Money happened to be working at the time, he said.

Robinson, who had been lieutenant governor for over a year by then, recognized Money and called his name. The men, who had not seen each other for about a decade, talked for about 20 minutes, Money recalled.

“I was like, ‘Dude, I’m so proud of you, man,'” he said, adding that he jokingly scolded Robinson because he owed him $25 for a pirated porn video he had shown him years ago. The lieutenant governor laughed, he said.

Later that day, Money posted a photo on social media of the two posing together at Planet Fitness. “I disagree with this guy politically. But we were always cool,” he captioned it. “That’s our lieutenant governor who still owes me money LOL.”

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Robinson’s spokesman Mike Longeran told the assembly in an email that Money’s story was a “false and personal attack” and “completely fabricated.” He called Money a “freak show crook” with a “long history of criminal charges” who hung around the Papa John’s where Robinson worked and “asked for free pizza.”

Court documents obtained through the Assembly show that Money has been charged with nine counts in the past 13 years. He was convicted twice of drug offenses; the other cases were dismissed.

Money said he sold marijuana for 20 years, but never to Robinson. He admitted he may have asked for a “free pizza here and there.”

However, he disagreed with the speaker’s other characterizations. “I think I’m going to write a song called ‘Freak Show Grifter,'” he added.

The Daily Beast has also reached out to Robinson’s campaign team for comment.

Pornography was not illegal in North Carolina at the time Robinson allegedly engaged in it, and it is not illegal today. But state lawmakers passed a law last year that requires potential porn users to first submit a photo ID to a porn website to verify their age.

The current governor, Democrat Roy Cooper, signed the law in June.

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