SELMA, N.C. (WGHP) — North Carolina’s lieutenant governor and Republican nominee for governor spent his weekend speaking at an event that NPR described as “part conservative Christian revival, part QAnon expo and part political rally” in North Carolina.
The ReAwaken America Tour, founded by Clay Clark in 2021, made what is being advertised as its final stop in Selma, North Carolina, on Oct. 18-19, hosting speakers such as former President Donald Trump’s son Eric Trump, Donald Trump’s former deputy assistant Peter Navarro, political operative Roger Stone and comedian Jim Breuer among others.
On day two of the event, despite not being announced in any of the promotional material for the event leading up to it, North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson spoke in front of the crowd gathered for the tour.
The ThriveTime Show, Clark’s radio program, released video from the event, including Robinson’s speech which begins around 30 minutes into the video. The lieutenant governor is introduced by Clark, former Donald Trump national security advisor Michael Flynn and Strategic Response Partners CEO Steve Slepcevic.
While Slepcevic doesn’t introduce himself during the speech, his website says his organization is focused on disaster relief. He describes meeting Robinson during Hurricane Helene relief efforts and finding himself struck by Robinson’s leadership qualities. He claims that Gov. Roy Cooper kept four civilian aircraft that were needed for rescue efforts on the tarmac until Robinson got involved and ensured they were allowed in the air.
Slepcevic says that Robinson is “nothing short of a man who takes accountability for everything that happens,” before handing off the microphone to Flynn, who then formally introduces the lieutenant governor, calling him “a leader that this country needs.”
Robinson spoke for about 15 minutes and primarily discussed his view of courage. He thanked Jesus for his own courage, praised the bravery of American soldiers in wars from the American Revolution to the Civil War to the two world wars and reflected on the ways that courage has shaped America.
While he did not directly address any of the allegations, Robinson referenced the CNN report published last month that prompted the lieutenant governor to file a lawsuit against the news network. The CNN report connects Robinson to comments, which were described in the suit as “lewd, sex-obsessed, racist and outrageous,” posted on the porn website NudeAfrica.
“When CNN came after me I was afraid for about 1.5 seconds and then I got doggone mad and decided that, if CNN wants to fight, that’s what they’ll get,” he said.
He characterized his opponent in the North Carolina gubernatorial race, Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein as an ineffectual and dishonest politician who only serves to enrich himself, not an elected official who serves their constituents.
“The men who founded this country, they did not intend to have people in office who were self-interested,” he said.
He went on to characterize Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, as the “absolute most horrendous candidate for president” and called into question President Joe Biden’s mental fitness at various points in the speech.
While pushing back on what he described as the “leftist” idea of a “revolution,” he said, “We need a revival in this country.” He described this revival as a return to constitutional values.
He said he chose to run for office because he did not want to look at his grandchildren and say that he had been too afraid to guarantee them “the freedom I grew up with.”
His signature firebrand nature was on full display as he ended the speech, shouting into the microphone, “I was willing to get out and fight.”
“I told them, I’ll be damned, we will hold onto freedom. My grandchildren will live in it, my great-grandchildren will live in it, I will die in it and America will live in it forever and ever. That’s what I’m going to tell my grandchildren.”
What is the ReAwaken America Tour?
The ReAwaken America Tour advertises itself as a traveling lineup of speakers, featuring “the people that are actually at the tip of the spear working directly with Pres. Trump on a day-to-day basis to save this nation.” Clark, the founder, and Flynn tour around the country with a rotating cast of guests that has included figures like Eric Trump, Stone, Roseanne Barr and Alex Jones.
Subtitled “The Great Reawakening vs. The Great Reset,” the event frames its speakers as combatants in the fight against corruption.
While historically “The Great Awakening” is a phrase that has been used to describe periods of American Christian revival, it is also a phrase commonly used by QAnon to describe a prophesied time in which the masses will “wake up” to their beliefs and rise up against the shadowy cabal.
Framed by organizers as the antithesis of “The Great Awakening,” “The Great Reset” was a series of economic proposals put forward by the World Economic Forum as an idea for post-pandemic economic recovery. Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum, is quoted as saying that the pandemic represented a “rare but narrow” window of opportunity to “reflect, reimagine and reset” in order to create a more prosperous future.
However, according to BBC, critics latched onto the vague Great Reset proposal as part of a larger conspiracy, alleging that “lockdown restrictions were introduced not to curb the spread of the virus, but to deliberately bring about economic collapse and a socialist world government, albeit run for the benefit of powerful capitalists.”
Clark writes on the website, “The reason I started the ReAwaken America Tour and TimeToFreeAmerica.com is I felt called by God to expose ‘The COVID-19 / Great Reset’ agenda being pushed by Bill Gates, Klaus Schwab, George Soros, China, and other elite globalists that hate God and America. The ReAwaken America Tour exists to expose the election fraud, medical fraud, religious fraud, monetary fraud and mainstream media fraud that has been used to push the ‘COVID-19 Great Reset Agenda.’ Our call to action is to get people back to God because I believe that true repentance and salvation is needed to save this nation.”
The ADL described the tour as “a series of controversial far-right conferences held across the United States featuring prominent QAnon influencers, anti-vaccination activists, election fraud conspiracy theorists, Christian pastors, political candidates and elected officials.”
While the ADL and NPR describe the rally as having strong ties to QAnon, the website for the tour does not explicitly endorse or reference QAnon or QAnon vernacular such as “the storm” or catchphrases like “where we go one, we go all.” However, attendees and certain guests have promoted the conspiracy, and Clay himself retweeted a video about the chemical compound “adrenochrome,” a common QAnon focus, on his X account.
In June 2023, Clark tweeted that Robinson would be attending the Aug. 25, 2023, and Aug. 26, 2023 stops of his ReAwaken America tour. At the time, FOX8 reached out to Robinson’s campaign for comment but did not hear back. In August, his picture was removed from the poster and his campaign confirmed he would not be attending, but no reason for the change was given. He has not been advertised as a guest since that 2023 announcement, up to and including his appearance this past weekend.