Source: NBC News
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Attorney General Josh Stein launched his first two TV ads last week, one of which has garnered national attention for how it attacks Republican candidate Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson’s views on abortion – using nothing but Robinson’s own words.
The ad, titled “Listen,” is part of a seven-figure buy by Stein’s campaign, according to NBC News, and features video clips from multiple Robinson interviews about reproductive rights and abortion.
The clip that has gained the most attention shows Robinson from a 2019 Facebook Live where he accuses women of “killing” babies because they couldn’t “keep [their] skirt down.”
“Abortion in this country is not about protecting the lives of mothers,” Robinson says in the clip. “It is about killing the child because you weren’t responsible enough to keep your skirt down.”
That previously unreported clip is similar to a recent video of a sermon given by a pastor at a church near Charlotte who said he wouldn’t convict a man of rape if the woman had been wearing shorts. The pastor’s comments went viral.
In another clip, which came from an interview on Republican North Carolina House Rep. Jeff McNeely’s radio show, Robinson says, “If I had all the power right now, say I was the governor and had a willing legislature, we could pass a bill right now that says you can’t get an abortion in North Carolina for any reason.”
Robinson’s campaign has argued that the lieutenant governor’s quote was taken out of context and that he supports a “heartbeat” bill, which would ban abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. Thankfully for the voters of North Carolina who aren’t interested in getting gaslit by the spokesperson of a gubernatorial candidate, Robinson has said many times that he wants to ban abortion completely and there is audio and video to prove it.
Another clip in Stein’s video shows Robinson talking about how he won’t compromise his beliefs on abortion.
“For me, there is no compromise on abortion. It makes no difference to me why or how that child ended up in that womb.”
The ad ends with audio from a Robinson speech at the state GOP convention where he said that once a woman becomes pregnant “it’s not [her] body anymore” and therefore, she can’t make reproductive health decisions on her own.
Stein has not shied away from voicing his support for reproductive rights and has vowed as attorney general (and potentially governor), that he will continue to defend access to abortion and women’s reproductive freedoms.
“This November, North Carolinians will have a stark choice between a safer, stronger North Carolina with Josh Stein or Mark Robinson’s focus on stripping women of their reproductive freedoms and a vision for division that will kill jobs,” Jeff Allen, Stein’s campaign manager, said in a statement to NBC News. “Over the next five months, we are prepared to make sure every North Carolinian knows the stakes of this race — and we’re just getting started.”
The second ad released by the Stein campaign focuses on his work as attorney general, including suing pharmaceutical companies and his efforts to clear a backlog of over 16,000 untested rape kits, which he helped accomplish in April.
