White Lake, North Carolina - MAGA Republican and North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson is facing heightened criticism after he recently gave a speech calling for the deaths of people he believes have "evil intent."

On June 30, Robinson, a Donald Trump-endorsed candidate, gave a half-hour speech to the congregation of Lake Church, where he appeared to endorse the idea of enacting political violence against groups that oppose or live contrary to his beliefs.

"We now find ourselves struggling with people who have evil intent," Robinson told the crowd. "You know, there's a time when we used to meet evil on the battlefield and guess what we did to it? We killed it!"

"Some folks need killing!" he continued.

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"It's time for somebody to say it. It's not a matter of vengeance. It's not a matter of being mean or spiteful. It's a matter of necessity!"

His rhetoric falls in line with that of Trump and other MAGA Republicans, who repeatedly push the narrative that liberals and their policies are intentionally destroying the country – and which they argue could justify a violent response from conservatives.

While Robinson did not explicitly indicate what "folks" he was referring to, the comments were sandwiched into a rant that saw the politician attack several groups, including liberals, socialists, and communists.

Robinson was well aware that his comments would receive backlash, as he prefaced them by stating, "Some liberal somewhere is going to say that sounds awful. Too bad. Get mad at me if you want to."

Robinson, who has been serving as North Carolina's lieutenant governor since 2021, has a long history of pushing far-right conspiracy theories and extremist rhetoric.

He has faced criticism for publicly quoting Adolf Hitler, comparing abortion care to murder, arguing that Black Americans should pay reparations to White Americans as a "thank you" for the US slave trade, and regularly denigrating the LGBTQ+ community, consistently referring to them as "filth."

The controversial politician is now running for governor of his state, and in March he defeated his primary challengers to win the Republican nomination.

He will now go on to face Democrat Josh Stein in the general election, which will take place on November 5.