North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson is no longer appearing at an upcoming campaign event with former President Donald Trump after CNN reported about his alleged racist and sexist posts on a pornography site.
Robinson, North Carolina’s 2024 GOP gubernatorial nominee, will not speak or appear at Trump’s rally on Saturday in Wilmington, a person on the Trump campaign and another person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Friday.
Newsweek reached out to Trump’s communications director, Steven Cheung, via email for comment.
On Thursday, CNN reported that over a decade ago, Robinson allegedly made a series of inflammatory comments on a message board of a pornography site, which included calling himself a “black NAZI” and a “perv.”
North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson speaks at a rally for former President Donald Trump at Harrah’s Cherokee Center on August 14, 2024, in Asheville, North Carolina. Robinson is no longer appearing at an upcoming campaign event Trump after CNN reported about his alleged racist and sexist posts on a pornography site.
Grant Baldwin/Getty Images
Despite Robinson using anti-transgender rhetoric in recent years, including when he used the word “filth” while discussing gay and transgender people during a 2021 speech at a church, he also allegedly said on the messaging board that he enjoyed watching transgender pornography.
Robinson has repeatedly denied making these comments, calling them “salacious tabloid lies” to CNN. In a video message, Robinson reassured his supporters that “those are not the words of Mark Robinson” and said that he is staying in the race for North Carolina governor.
When previously reached for comment by Newsweek, Robinson’s campaign referred to the lieutenant governor’s video message.
Trump, the 2024 GOP presidential nominee, has endorsed Robinson and praised him in the past, calling the Black politician “Martin Luther King on steroids.” Robinson has also frequented Trump’s campaign events in North Carolina.
Following CNN’s report, the Trump campaign issued a vague statement that did not name Robinson but said North Carolina is a “vital part” of the plan to secure a second Trump victory.
Trump won North Carolina in the 2016 and 2020 elections. However, his margin of victory in 2020 was slim with him receiving 49.9 percent of the vote and now-President Joe Biden getting 48.6 percent. According to poll aggregator FiveThirtyEight, Trump currently leads Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Presidential nominee, by just 0.1 points (47.5 percent to 47.4 percent).
Robinson’s alleged porn site comments could not only hurt his race against Democratic nominee Josh Stein, North Carolina’s attorney general, but GOP prospects in other races, including Trump’s.
“The fallout is going to be huge,” Chris Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University, told The Associated Press on Friday.
Some Republicans called on Robinson to suspend his candidacy before the deadline on Thursday, but Robinson remained the Republican candidate for governor in North Carolina on Friday. Stein, meanwhile, is leading Robinson in the polls as the November election inches closer.
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.
