North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson vowed to stay in the governor’s race against state Attorney General Josh Stein on Thursday after a bombshell report said he posted derogatory slurs and referred to himself as a “Black Nazi” on a pornographic website’s forum.
Mr. Robinson, the Republican nominee, posted an 82-second video on X calling the allegations “salacious tabloid lies.”
“We are staying in this race and we are in it to win it,” Mr. Robinson said.
Mr. Robinson released the unusual pre-buttal after all-day murmuring in local outlets and social media about a looming story from CNN that could nudge him from the race.
The story, published Thursday afternoon, said Mr. Robinson posted on a website, Nude Africa, under a moniker he commonly used online, though his online profile had his full name and email address.
Writing on a forum about Black Republicans, the report says he called himself a “Black Nazi” and wrote: “Slavery is not bad. Some people need to be slaves. I wish they would bring it (slavery) back. I would certainly buy a few.”
The story also said Mr. Robinson posted derogatory words about Muslims and Jews.
“The things that you will see in that story, those are not the words of Mark Robinson,” the candidate said Thursday in his X video. “You know my words, you know my character.”
Mr. Robinson said opponents are “desperate” to change the topic from issues important to voters.
Former President Donald Trump endorsed Mr. Robinson in March, dubbing him “Martin Luther King on steroids.”
The support helped to propel Mr. Robinson to the GOP nomination despite concerns about his penchant for openly criticizing the LGBT community and deploying other strident rhetoric.
Notably, the CNN story said Mr. Robinson, under his moniker, aired his affinity for transgender porn and slammed MLK as a “commie bastard” and “worse than a maggot.”
Mr. Robinson, a featured speaker at the GOP national convention in July, had been trailing Mr. Stein, a Democrat, in major polls.
Some Trump supporters told pollsters they planned to split their tickets and back Mr. Stein.
Earlier this week, Mr. Stein refused to debate Mr. Robinson.
“I’m not going to stand up and give him a platform to spread his lies,” the front-runner told WPTF Radio in Raleigh.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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