WASHINGTON ― North Carolina Republican gubernatorial nominee Mark Robinson lashed out Monday against “the false lies” about him in a CNN investigative report Thursday that uncovered years of disturbing comments he made in a forum on a porn website.
Except then, in the same breath, he suggested maybe those comments were really by him.
During a campaign event, his first since the CNN report triggered a mass exodus of staff on his campaign, Robinson, the state’s lieutenant governor, vowed to take legal action against CNN over its story. Among other things, the report said Robinson referred to himself as a “black Nazi,” described being sexually aroused by secretly watching women in public showers and called himself a “perv” who likes pornography with transgender people in it ― a sharp contrast to his present-day transphobic rhetoric.
“You’d better understand I am coming after CNN full-throttle,” a visibly angry Robinson told reporters about taking legal action against the news network.
“We’re not here to talk about 15- or 20-year-old salacious, false lies,” he continued in a rant.
But then, amid his shouting, he suggested those past comments may be real after all: “They want to talk about what possibly happened 15 years ago.”
You can watch a video clip of Robinson hedging here.
Robinson began denying the details of the CNN report before it even came out. On Thursday, he preemptively recorded a video to say he wasn’t dropping out of his race over CNN’s “salacious, tabloid trash.” But he’s had a hard time convincing fellow Republicans that the report is nonsense, given how thoroughly CNN’s reporters researched who was behind this username making vile comments on the porn site Nude Africa. Reporters linked the username directly to many of Robinson’s biographical details and his shared email addresses.
Since the report came out, eight of Robinson’s campaign staff, including his campaign manager, have resigned. A news outlet in Raleigh, WRAL News, reported Monday that staff may have finally called it quits with Robinson ― who is already known for making sexist, racist, Islamophobic, homophobic and otherwise vile comments ― because he refused multiple offers from supporters to connect him with tech specialists to look into who was using his username on the porn site. Seeing Robinson rebuff these offers of help appeared to sow doubt among his staff that he was telling the truth about the posts.
Beyond his staff quitting en masse, the Republican Governors Association said it won’t be spending more money on ad buys for him in the state. GOP elected officials in North Carolina are distancing themselves from Robinson for fear of being associated with him in the final weeks before the November election. The Cook Political Report promptly shifted its forecast for North Carolina’s gubernatorial race from “leans Democrat” to “likely Democrat.” Robinson is running against the state’s Democratic attorney general, Josh Stein.
Even Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who enthusiastically endorsed Robinson in March and has hailed him as “Martin Luther King on steroids,” is staying away from him. Trump was stumping in North Carolina over the weekend, and Robinson was nowhere in sight. Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), Trump’s running mate, is holding events in the state on Monday and has no plans to appear with Robinson either.
Over the weekend, some Republican senators squirmed when asked about Robinson’s next steps.
In a Sunday interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said the CNN report’s findings are “beyond unnerving” and if they’re not true, Robinson has a great lawsuit to file for libel.
But if they are true, “he’s unfit to serve for office,” Graham said.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who has never been a fan of Robinson, similarly said the GOP gubernatorial nominee should take “immediate legal action” if the reporting is false.
But if it’s true, “he owes it to President Trump and every Republican to take accountability for his actions and put the future of NC & our party before himself,” Tillis said on social media.
