GOP candidate for North Carolina governor Mark Robinson remembered as ‘regular’ visitor to adult video shop

North Carolina Lt. Governor Mark Robinson, a candidate for governor in the state, was remembered as a regular visitor to an adult video store in the 1990s – an accusation he has vehemently denied.

However, a total of six men who worked at or frequented Gents Video & News in Greensboro remember Robinson as a jovial presence at the shop who came to watch videos about five nights a week after his shift at Papa Johns.

Money, a former sex shop employee, told The Assembly that Robinson would even bring free pizza and tell jokes in the style of ’80s comic Andrew ‘Dice’ Clay. 

The employee even recorded a song about his memory of Robinson’s unpaid tab, called ‘The Lt. Governor Owes Me Money’ with his band Trailer Park Orchestra.

Robinson has been known to promote conspiracy theories and a number of anti-Semitic, homophobic and sexist comments, yet has received the endorsement of Donald Trump, who called him ‘Martin Luther King on steroids’. 

Louis Money – real name – pleaded guilty to misdemeanor drug use in 2018 and 2021 and has faced nine total counts of criminal wrongdoing.

Money also recorded a song about his memory of Robinson’s unpaid tab, aptly titled ‘The Lt. Governor Owes Me Money’ with his band Trailer Park Orchestra.

Spokesman Mark Lonergan termed the accusations as ‘bulls***’ and ‘Democrat activist fan fiction’. He also referred to the reporters of the original story and Money as ‘degenerates’.

However, Money claims that not only would Robinson visit ‘one a week’ and would also purchase black market ‘super hardcore’ films that he sold on the side.

He even once failed to pay him $25, which led him to make a music video that features a Robinson lookalike appearing at an adult video store as 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, slipped your mind,’ are a sample of the lyrics. 

Money considers himself a political independent who likes Robinson as a person but not necessarily his conservative politics. 

He’s not even interested in getting the $25 back, Money just thought it would be a ‘funny story’ that could get his band some free promotion. 

Robinson, without giving specific details, wrote that he lived a sinful life even after professing his faith in Jesus in the 1980s. 

The outrageous story comes courtesy of Louis Money, an employee at Gents Video & News (pictured under a different name in 2012) in Greensboro, who is now sensationalizing his accusations in a music video for a song called ‘The Lt. Governor Owes Me Money’ by his band Trailer Park Orchestra

‘I did not, however, experience a drastic conversion like some do. My behavior did not immediately reform. They say sin is fun for a season, and I was in that season.’

He even told a local church in 2021 that ‘when I got saved, the devil doubled down in my life’ before God told him to stop. 

‘I still continued in disobedience after being saved. And I’m not ashamed to say it.’

Money – who worked at and managed various adult video stores in the area for 15 years starting in 1992 – said that Robinson would come in, hang out for hours and watch what was known as ‘previews’ of dirty videos for $8 a clip.

‘Every night that I worked, which would have been five nights a week, I saw Mark. He was spending a good amount of money.’ 

He also claimed that ‘I know he might have problems with gay people, but I don’t think he has problems with lesbians’ based on what he purchased. 

Lonergan admitted that Robinson knew Money, but claims it was just an attempt to get free pizza and hang out at the Papa Johns that Robinson worked at. 

‘I think I went in that [Papa Johns] one time the whole time that I knew him,’ Money said. 

A spokesman for Robinson harshly denied the claims: ‘It’s a categorical ‘no’ to all the ridiculous allegations made by The Assembly 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 of 2022, when the lieutenant governor said hello and stopped to pose for a photo, he claims

He also claimed that you ‘know that’s bulls***’ because Papa Johns are strictly takeout and have no room to hang out. 

The story cited five other customers and employees of Gents – none of whom appear to share Robinson’s politics but none of whom have donated to his campaign – who say they consistently saw the lieutenant governor at the store.

They all recall Robinson as a pleasant man and often very funny, even though they found some of his jokes homophobic. 

‘He would have like five or six of us up front dying laughing at 4 in the morning. Almost like a standup routine—not copying Andrew Dice Clay, but almost like doing an Andrew Dice Clay comedy bit,’ recalled Money.

Money last met Robinson in November of 2022, when the lieutenant governor said hello and stopped to pose for a photo, he claims.

‘It was cool running into an old friend today. We disagree on politics however you have always been cool with me,’ Money wrote on social media at the time. 

Money insists that this whole mess with the music video is just an ‘inside joke’ he’s putting out to promote his band.

He says now: ‘I don’t know if he still watches porn. You know, people change in 20 years.’

Lt. Governor Robinson speaking at a Trump rally on March 2 , 2024. The ex-president endorsed Robinson in the governor’s race and called him MLK ‘on steroids’ at the rally

There has been vast reporting on Robinson entertaining conspiracy theories but this is believed to be the first audio of him discussing conspiracies about Pearl Harbor and Patton.  

Robinson went on to argue that President Franklin Roosevelt’s decision to enter World War II was part of a communist conspiracy to help Stalin.

Robinson’s past referencing conspiracy theories is well documented.

He previously claimed in a post that he was ‘skeptical’ of ‘everything’ he has seen on TV including 9/11, and the JFK assassination and the 2017 Las Vegas shooting. 

Robinson also posted he doesn’t believe the moon landing was faked or that 9/11 was an ‘inside job’ but wrote if he found out it was true he ‘would not be surprised.’

The right-wing conservative firebrand has also been a polarizing figure who has come under fire for his past comments on women, Jews, Muslims and members of the LGBTQ community.

Before running for lieutenant governor in 2020, Robinson once wrote that the Black Panther movie was ‘created by an agnostic Jew and put to film by satanic Marxists.’

In another post, Robinson wrote ‘this foolishness about Hitler disarming MILLIONS of Jews and then marching them off to concentration camps is a bunch of hogwash.’ 

Democrat Attorney General Josh Stein is facing off against Robinson in the general election

While it has been raised by critics, in this case Robinson appears to be making a point about gun control and restrictions before the Nazis. His campaign said he has never denied the Holocaust. 

After the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Florida in which 49 people were killed in 2016, he wrote that homosexuality is ‘STILL an abominable sin’ and he would ‘NOT join in “celebrating gay pride.”‘

He also suggested Ellen DeGeneres, who is openly gay, was a ‘top ranking demon.’ 

In posts after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in 2018, Robinson called the survivors ‘spoiled, angry, know it all CHILDREN’ and ‘media prosti-tots.’

Robinson clinched the Republican nomination for governor in North Carolina on Super Tuesday in March.

He’s backed by Donald Trump who described Robinson as ‘Martin Luther King on steroids’ when endorsing him at a rally in Greensboro before the primary.

Democrat Attorney General Josh Stein is facing off against Robinson in the general election.