August 13, 2025/Media, Press

ICYMI: DC Insider Michael Whatley Blasted For Toxic Agenda, Rise Of Mark Robinson

DC political hack Michael Whatley was blasted for his role in helping extremist, scandal-plagued Mark Robinson rise to power and for his dangerous agenda that guts Medicaid for more than 650,000 North Carolinians. 

Whatley spent his career elevating extremists, praising Robinson as a “man of the people” and the “greatest Lieutenant Governor in the United States.” Now, Whatley is championing a disastrous agenda for North Carolina, calling gutting Medicaid, raising costs, and a “backdoor to privatizing Social Security” a “huge win.”

Read more below about Whatley’s toxic agenda and ties to Mark Robinson.

The News & Observer: NC Democrats criticize GOP’s Michael Whatley for rise of Mark Robinson

Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan | August 12, 2025

  • North Carolina Democrats are tying Republican Senate candidate Michael Whatley to Mark Robinson, who lost his bid for governor after years of inflammatory social media posts and anti-LGBTQ+ remarks, and after a bombshell report linked Robinson to a series of disturbing online comments.
  • Before Trump picked Whatley and when Robinson was a potential candidate, U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, the retiring Republican incumbent, warned Republicans against making Robinson their nominee, with a reference to the scandal, Robinson’s online handle “minisoldr.”
  • Rep. Phil Rubin, a Wake County Democrat, criticized Whatley’s “elevation of dangerous extremists like Mark Robinson” while Whatley led the NCGOP, “even as Robinson said vile things” about a variety of people, including women and victims of violence.
  • “One of the things you need as a United States senator is strong judgment in both this sort of tactical sense, but also a moral sense. … He was the head of the North Carolina Republican Party. He was the person who was probably more than anyone else, responsible for Mark Robinson’s rise,” Rubin told reporters at a news conference on Tuesday in Raleigh.
  • Gailliard said North Carolina “doesn’t need someone representing us in the U.S. Senate who wants to be rewarded for having given us Mark Robinson.”

NC Newsline: Democrats hammer NC Senate candidate Michael Whatley for support of Mark Robinson

Brandon Kingdollar | August 12, 2025

  • At the state Democratic Party headquarters, state Rep. Phil Rubin (D-Wake) called Whatley a “Washington big oil lobbyist” who has “consistently elevated the most extreme forces in this party and in North Carolina,” specifically mentioning Robinson.
  • “His support for Robinson was steadfast even as Robinson said vile things about women, attacked victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, and said, ‘We are called to be led by men, not women,’” Rubin said. “This election is a clear choice between results and resentment, between competence and culture wars.”
  • Former N.C. Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican, criticized Whatley that same month for enabling Robinson’s rise. In an interview with CNN, he said the former state Republican Party chair “ignored many known flaws that many of us knew about [Robinson] and just assumed they’d be brushed over,” calling Robinson “a ticking time bomb for several years now.”
  • World Tabernacle Church Pastor James Gaillard, a state Senate candidate, said at the press conference that Whatley “spent years here in North Carolina and also nationally elevating really dangerous people to powerful offices.”
  • “One of those dangerous individuals was our former lieutenant governor, Mark Robinson, and I think it’s important that we connect those dots,” Gaillard said. “North Carolina doesn’t need someone representing us in the U.S. Senate who wants to be rewarded for having given us Mark Robinson.”
  • Beyond Robinson, the speakers at Tuesday’s press conference attacked Whatley over his support for the Republican “big, beautiful bill” cutting health care and social services spending, contrasting it with Cooper’s record of ushering in Medicaid expansion and extending coverage to nearly 670,000 additional North Carolinians.
  • Jen Kalinowski, the mother of a girl born with a rare genetic disorder known as dup15q who requires constant care through Medicaid, also spoke at the press conference. Kalinowski said losing that care would have life-altering consequences for her family.
  • “She will never be able to gain any independence without her therapies. She certainly will not have the quality of care and support she needs. She will die without control of her seizures,” Kalinowski said. “We can’t elect a U.S. senator who rips away health care from those who need it more. I implore my fellow North Carolinians to please stand up for what’s right.”

 

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