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Mark Robinson, the Republican lieutenant governor of North Carolina who is now running for governor, made dozens of incendiary comments on a porn message board years ago, CNN reported Thursday.
Posting under a pseudonym, Robinson called himself a “Black Nazi” who supported the return of slavery in the U.S. and repeatedly excoriated Martin Luther King Jr. He also wrote that Adolf Hilter’s book, Mein Kampf, “is a good read,” according to a followup report from the Washington Post published Friday.
In a video released minutes before CNN’s original report came out, the lieutenant governor denounced the allegations as “salacious, tabloid trash” and vowed to stay in the race. “Let me reassure you. The things that you will see in that story, those are not the words of Mark Robinson,” he said. “You know my words, you know my character, and you know that I have been completely transparent in this race and before.”
“Clarence Thomas famously once said he was the victim of a high-tech lynching,” he said. “Well, it looks like Mark Robinson is, too.”
CNN reports that Robinson made numerous comments on the porn site NudeAfrica between 2008 and 2012 under the username “minisoldr,” a name that the outlet linked to Robinson through old social-media accounts, including a past X profile that used that name. On the porn site, he described at length his sexual proclivities, including peeping on women in a public-gym locker room as a teenager and later fantasizing about the incident. He also frequently used homophobic and transphobic slurs.
In one comment from 2010, he indicated that he didn’t care if a celebrity had gotten an abortion. “I don’t care. I just wanna see the sex tape!” he wrote. (He has been virulently anti-abortion during his campaign.)
Robinson, who has publicly questioned some of the events of the Holocaust, allegedly used antisemitic slurs and displayed an affinity for Hitler. In one 2012 comment, he expressed a preference for the dictator over then-president Barack Obama. “I’d take Hitler over any of the sh*t that’s in Washington right now!” Robinson said. Per the Post, Robinson also wrote that Mein Kampf was “very informative and not at all what I thought it would be. It’s a real eye opener.”
The report also alleges that Robinson made several incendiary comments against King, in particular:
In a series of seven posts in October 2011, Robinson disparaged Martin Luther King in such intense terms, calling him a “commie bastard,” “worse than a maggot,” a “ho f**king, phony,” and a “huckster,” that a user in the thread accused him of being in the KKK. Robinson responded by directing a slur at King.
Before the article even came out, the Carolina Journal reported that Robinson’s staff, as well as members of Donald Trump’s campaign, had been pressuring the lieutenant governor to drop his bid for governor as the CNN report loomed. Michael Lonergan, a Robinson spokesman, told the National Review at the time that it’s “complete fiction” that he will drop out from the race. A senior Trump campaign adviser denied that the campaign was trying to push Robinson out.
Robinson has been trailing behind his Democratic opponent Josh Stein, the North Carolina attorney general, in recent weeks. A Quinnipiac University poll from earlier this month had Stein leading Robinson 51 to 41 percent among likely voters. Robinson previously appeared alongside Trump at a March rally ahead of the primary election. During that appearance, the former president referred to Robinson as, “Martin Luther King on steroids.” After the CNN report was published, Sabato’s Crystal Ball, which analyzes elections, altered its ranking of the North Carolina race to favor Democrats.
Congressman Richard Hudson, the head of the House GOP’s campaign arm, told Punchbowl News, “The allegations are very concerning. He says they’re not true. I think he needs to assure the people of the state in more detail that they aren’t true.” North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis sounded more resigned in a late night X post:
The allegations emerged with little time left for Robinson to drop out, if he wanted to. Per the North Carolina Board of Elections, candidates had until 11:59 p.m. Thursday evening to submit a written request to withdraw from their race. The NCBOE received no such request.
The North Carolina Republican Party released a statement Thursday night which said that Robinson has “categorically denied the allegations made by CNN.” The state GOP accused “the Left” of “trying to demonize him via personal attacks.”
Though the state party is sticking by Robinson, Trump appears to be putting some distance between the two. The Associated Press reports that the lieutenant governor won’t be in attendance at Trump’s Saturday rally in Wilmington, North Carolina following the controversy.
The Harris-Walz campaign immediately jumped on the report, attempting to tie Trump directly to Robinson amid the controversy by sharing photos of them together as well as clips of Trump praising the gubernatorial candidate. They also released a new campaign ad, highlighting Trump’s past praise of Robinson in contrast with his inflammatory rhetoric.
In additional reporting, Politico found that Robinson’s personal email address was registered on Ashley Madison, an online dating site aimed at married people who are seeking to have an affair.
Earlier this month, the Assembly, a local news site, reported that the lieutenant governor frequented a Greensboro porn shop in the 1990s and early 2000s. The outlet spoke to several former employees of the establishment who allege that Robinson would visit the store as often as five times a week to watch videos. A spokesman for Robinson campaign has denied the allegations in the article.
This post has been updated.
