Maddow Blog | New allegations add to Mark Robinson’s troubles in North Carolina
Mark Robinson’s Republican gubernatorial campaign in North Carolina was already struggling. In fact, while the Tar Heel State appears to be highly competitive at the presidential level this year, every recent poll has shown Robinson trailing Democratic state Attorney General Josh Stein — in some surveys, by double-digit margins.
But the right-wing candidate’s difficulties are far from over. The latest reporting from CNN has made matters even worse for Robinson.
Mark Robinson, the controversial and socially conservative Republican nominee for governor of North Carolina, made a series of inflammatory comments on a pornography website’s message board more than a decade ago, in which he referred to himself as a ‘black NAZI!’ and expressed support for reinstating slavery, a CNN KFile investigation found. Despite a recent history of anti-transgender rhetoric, Robinson said he enjoyed watching transgender pornography, a review of archived messages found in which he also referred to himself as a ‘perv.’
CNN added that it was able to verify that the username belonged to Robinson “by matching a litany of biographical details and a shared email address between the two.” Robinson denied the accuracy of the reporting, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News.
Complicating matters, Politico also published a new report, which has also not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, alleging that an email address belonging to Robinson “was registered on Ashley Madison, a website designed for married people seeking affairs.”
The report added that an adviser to the gubernatorial candidate confirmed to Politico that “the email address in question belongs to Robinson.”
To be sure, the extremist candidate was a scandalous figure before these revelations reached the public. What’s more, the GOP candidate has been forced to confront a variety of controversies in recent weeks, related to everything from pornography to abortion, bankruptcies to contraception.
But by any fair measure, the newest allegations, if accurate, are the most brutal. Republicans tend to do well in North Carolina, but when a struggling candidate is credibly accused of describing himself as a “black NAZI!” who doesn’t think slavery was necessarily a “bad” thing, it’s a tough sell to the state’s electorate.
Shortly before CNN published its report, the right-wing candidate recorded a brief online statement in which he insisted he was “staying in this race.”
SCOOP: Ahead of expected bombshell report form CNN on Lt. Gov. @markrobinsonNC, the North Carolina republican Gov nominee says in video statement first shared with @NRO that he’s “staying in this race”
WATCH: pic.twitter.com/Uk0nzCJNpG— Audrey Fahlberg (@AudreyFahlberg) September 19, 2024
The video was released just hours before North Carolina’s deadline for Robinson to withdraw from the race, which would allow party officials to choose a new candidate. It also coincided with multiple published reports that the gubernatorial hopeful was facing pressure to end his campaign — and by some accounts, that pressure included calls from some working on behalf of Donald Trump’s campaign.
As things stand, Robinson is still a candidate who hopes to become the chief executive of a large state. That said, he and his party have some questions to answer.
Will Robinson ignore the pressure to quit? Will Trump, who has repeatedly and publicly praised Robinson, cut him loose? Will the gubernatorial candidate’s scandals hurt other GOP candidates in North Carolina? Will his party redirect resources to other contests?
Will other Republican officials and candidates, many of whom have cozied up to Robinson for years, start pretending not to know him? Will conservative media outlets and personalities start walking back their years’ worth of praise for the radical candidate?
Watch this space.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
