Former President Donald Trump spoke at a plumbing equipment manufacturer in Mint Hill on Wednesday afternoon, and started his 80-minute speech by speculating whether Iran was behind the two assassination attempts against him this summer.
Mark Robinson, the embattled GOP candidate for governor, wasn’t there. It was the third Trump campaign event in a row he's been absent from, including Trump's Wilmington visit this weekend and Sen. JD Vance, the vice presidential nominee, in Charlotte on Monday.
Before coming to Mint Hill, Trump was briefed by U.S. intelligence officials about what his campaign said were specific threats from Iran to kill him.
The media has reported that the government doesn’t believe the two assassination attempts against Trump — by Americans, in Pennsylvania and in Florida — were tied to Iran. But Trump wondered if that was true and asked how the family of the alleged Pennsylvania shooter could afford what Trump said was a “big, big law firm.”
He then launched into a warning.
“But as the president, I would inform the threatening country, in this case Iran, if you do anything to harm this person we are going to blow your largest cities and the country itself to smithereens. We’re going to blow it to smithereens,” Trump said to applause. “And there would be no more threats.”
He continued.
“Meanwhile, we have the president of Iran in our country this week. We have large security forces guarding him, and yet they are threatening our former presidents and the leading candidate to become the next president — certainly a strange set of circumstances.”
Trump spent the rest of his speech on more familiar ground: saying he would impose wide-ranging tariffs to protect American manufacturers and to encourage companies to make products here.
Robinson remains absent
Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the Republican candidate for North Carolina governor, wasn’t there, and Trump didn’t mention him. Republicans have ghosted Robinson since CNN reported he had made racially and sexually offensive comments in an online forum of a pornographic website more than a decade ago.
Robinson allegedly called himself a “black NAZI” and defended slavery.
Some die-hard Trump supporters at the Mint Hill event weren’t ready to abandon Robinson. But like John Hoshinski, of Salisbury, they also weren’t ready to wholeheartedly embrace him.
“You don’t make decisions right away,” he said. “You wait, and let it all come out. And right now I’ll let this play out before I make a decision about Mark Robinson."
Ed Austin, of Mint Hill, agreed.
“I’m going to wait and get all my information before I decide whether to vote for Mark,” he said. “I met him two weeks ago at the Cabarrus County Fair. Nice guy.”
Robinson has denied making the posts. He said Tuesday that his campaign has hired a law firm to determine where the “false smears” originated. But he hadn't taken legal action as of Wednesday afternoon.
The Harris campaign held a virtual news conference to coincide with Trump’s visit.
North Carolina Rep. Wiley Nickel criticized Trump for endorsing Robinson and giving him a prominent speaking slot at the Republican National Convention.
