Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson at a campaign gathering Monday afternoon in Rocky Mount called the state-level response to Hurricane Helene in the western part of North Carolina “100 percent abysmal” and placed the blame on Gov. Roy Cooper.
Robinson, who is the Republican nominee for governor in the Nov. 5 election, spoke at the North Winstead Avenue location of Gardner’s Barbecue and gave attendees who packed the venue an update about what he has seen in the devastated areas of the state.
“This is not a Republican or a Democrat issue,” Robinson said. “That storm blew in and it didn’t stop at the door and say, ‘Hey, are you a Republican or a Democrat? Let me know before I blow your house over and wash all your stuff away.’”
Robinson was critical of the state’s relief and recovery response to the storm and said he would be just as critical if the governor were a Republican.
Cooper, a Nash County native, is a Democrat in his second term as governor. By state law, he cannot run for a third consecutive four-year term.
Cooper has endorsed the Democratic gubernatorial nominee, N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein.
Robinson said Monday that he believes Cooper does not like him and that he does not like Cooper.
“I don’t like the way he treated the people of this state during COVID,” Robinson added. “I don’t like how many bills he has vetoed — good bills that he has vetoed — just because of his own personal opinion.”
Robinson, who is completing his first four-year term as the state’s number two official, said that after he took office in 2020, he had hoped that at some point he and Cooper could be seen somewhere together working on something that they agree on.
“The man never calls me,” Robinson said. “He never consults with me. He hardly looks at me. I don’t even think I exist in his eyes. That is poor leadership, folks.”
Robinson criticized the governor for attending a fundraiser in New York while Helene was “brewing.”
Robinson also said that once it was known Helene was going to hit, he would have called together the state’s executive officials that make up the Council of State and he would have told each member, “I’m doing this — and I expect you to do this.”
Robinson also said that he would have told the Council of State members to go to western North Carolina and would have told the members that, “You may be campaigning right now, but guess what? You can put that on hold.”
Mary Scott Winstead, who is the senior communication director at Cooper’s office, in response to an email from the Telegram seeking comment, said Monday evening that the lieutenant governor was spreading false information.
“Mark Robinson’s dangerous lies about the state’s response demoralizes the thousands of National Guard soldiers, emergency responders, highway patrol troopers, Department of Transportation workers, state medical personnel and more who have been on the ground risking their lives and working in a coordinated way under the direction of Governor Cooper to respond to the most catastrophic storm in North Carolina’s history,” Winstead said.
Winstead also said that Robinson was hurting recovery efforts by misleading voters for political purposes.
Cooper’s office, in a news release Monday evening, said that, regarding the response by the National Guard, more than 2,500 soldiers and airmen are now working in western North Carolina, with about 500 more on their way.
The news release also stated that more than 800 Federal Emergency Management Agency staff are in the state to help with the relief effort in western North Carolina.
More than $33 million in FEMA Individual Assistance Funds have been paid so far to western North Carolina disaster survivors and more than 109,000 people have registered for help individually, according to information from the governor’s office.
The N.C. Department of Transportation currently has more than 2,050 employees and 1,100 pieces of equipment working on more than 4,100 damaged road sites in the western part of the state, Cooper’s office stated.
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