RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson said Tuesday his campaign has hired a law firm to help investigate a CNN report stating he made explicit racial and sexual posts on a pornography website’s message board.
The lawyers will look at how what Robinson calls “false smears” originated.
The announcement comes as more North Carolina Republicans disturbed by last week’s report said that if Robinson can’t formally refute the accusations quickly, the GOP should shift its focus to competitive in-state races.
Other Republicans already have abandoned Robinson, the sitting lieutenant governor. The Republican Governors Association said Monday it will no longer support Robinson. His campaign had benefitted from the group spending millions of dollars in advertising in his race with Democratic nominee Josh Stein, whom polls have shown leading Robinson. Most of Robinson’s top campaign staffers also quit in the report’s fallout.
GOP officials are anxious that Robinson’s situation could pull down Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and help Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in the battleground state, and threaten the outcomes of other key seats on the ballot.
“He should conclusively and quickly prove false the allegations against him,” Hal Weatherman, who is seeking to succeed Robinson as lieutenant governor, said on X. Weatherman runs separately from Robinson but received his endorsement. “If he can prove this isn’t true and was fabricated to hurt him, he will win in a landslide. But if he fails to do so, he will lose, because the comments being attributed to him are highly disturbing.”
Robinson, a favorite of the state GOP’s conservative base and who would be the state’s first Black governor if elected, has denied writing the messages from more than a decade ago, well before he became active in politics. In a news release, Robinson said he was confident the Binnall Law Group from northern Virginia “will leave no stone unturned and enable us to use every legal means to hold CNN accountable for their lies.” Firm partner Jesse Binnall has represented Trump and his campaign in litigation.
CNN’s report unearthed posts it said Robinson left on a porn site’s message boards in which he referred to himself as a “black NAZI;” said he enjoyed transgender pornography; said in 2012 he preferred Hitler to then-President Barack Obama; and slammed the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as “worse than a maggot.” Robinson has a history of inflammatory comments on abortion, LGBTQ+ issues and the role of women that Stein and his allies have used against him for months.
CNN didn’t immediately respond to an email Tuesday seeking comment. Last week, CNN said it had matched details of an account on the pornographic website forum to other online accounts held by Robinson by comparing usernames, a known email address and his full name. CNN reported that details discussed by the account holder matched Robinson’s age, length of marriage and other biographical information.
At a campaign event Monday, Robinson said he would be “coming after CNN full throttle.” He hasn’t provided evidence that would counter the broadcast report.
