Martin Luther King Jr. was just an ersatz pastor and a communist, and the 1960s civil rights movement was crap, according to a series of Facebook posts by Mark Robinson, the leading Republican candidate to be North Carolinas next governor.

Robinson, who is currently the states lieutenant governor, regularly criticized King and the civil rights movement for years on Facebook specifically on MLK Day HuffPost found amid a review of his posts. The Black politician also downplayed slavery, rejected the idea that hes part of the African American community, and attacked the late congressman and civil rights icon, John Lewis.

These posts are surfacing at a time when Robinson, who is on track to be the GOP nominee for governor in November, has been trying to soften his rhetoric, and celebrate King and the civil rights movement.

Last month, former President Donald Trump hailed Robinson as better than Dr. Martin Luther King at a campaign event , and Robinson responded by saying he took it as a compliment and knowing what I know about him, and the history thereof, you know, those are big shoes to fill.

His social media posts tell a different story.

In January 2018, Robinson mocked people who celebrate King, who he said was just a subpar pastor. He didnt mention King by name, but he was clearly talking about the civil rights leader in his series of messages posted on MLK Day that year.

It is at once funny and sad that so many people will follow the lead of a bunch of atheists and worship an ersatz pastor as a deity, he wrote in one post .

Robinson also used MLK Day to dismiss the idea that racism is real.

The state of race relations exist chiefly within your own mind, he said .

Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty we are free at last! Now what? he said in another post that day.