A leading gubernatorial candidate in North Carolina said earlier this month that transgender women who need to use a public bathroom of their choosing should find a corner outside somewhere or else be arrested.

North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R) has a history of transphobic, racist and antisemitic comments, leading the Charlotte Observers editorial board to once call him an embarrassment .

Robinson hammered his point on transgender rights during at least two campaign stops earlier this month.

Were going to defend women in this state, he said at one, as The Washington Post was first to report .

That means if youre a man on Friday night, and all of a sudden Saturday you feel like a woman and you want to go in the womens bathroom in the hall, you will be arrested, or whatever we got to do to you. Were going to protect our women, he said.

The audience cheered for his remarks.

At another stop, Robinson made audience members laugh by saying , If you are confused, find a corner outside somewhere.

He added: Im sorry, we are not tearing society down because of this.

Polls indicate that Robinson is the leading GOP contender for North Carolina governor; the states primary is scheduled for March 5. If selected, he will likely go up against Democratic candidate Josh Stein.

Robinson has served as second-in-command to North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) since 2021.

On social media, Robinson has made comments questioning the reality of the Holocaust. He suggested that the film Black Panther was created by an agnostic Jew and put to film by a satanic marxist in order to pull the shekels out of your Schvartze pockets, using a Yiddish word for Black people. He has repeatedly denounced transgender rights, saying that people who support this mass delusion called transgenderism were trying to turn Gods creation backwards.

When asked about his controversial remarks in 2020, Robinson said he stood by them.

The North Carolina legislature has over the past several years passed bills attacking transgender rights , overriding Coopers vetoes.