A new report concerning North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R), who is running to become the next governor of that state, details a number of unsettling comments he’s made in online forums on pornography websites.
The comments contained in the CNN KFile report, which was published on Thursday afternoon, are just the latest in a litany of bigoted remarks by Robinson to come to the surface. Although Robinson has denied making the comments, which were posted in the early 2010s, CNN has provided ample evidence that Robinson was likely behind the posts.
The account in question is listed as “minisoldr,” a username that Robinson has used in the past. The profile name of that account is “mark robinson,” and the account utilizes an email address Robinson has used elsewhere. Another account on the adult website refers to minisoldr as “Mark,” and many of the personal details that minisoldr shares on the forums — including the length of his marriage, where his family members are employed, where he was living, and more — correspond with Robinson’s life.
The posts are dated, and it wouldn’t be possible to manipulate the time of their posting to embarrass Robinson now.
Within the posts, Robinson espouses several extremist, far right viewpoints, including proudly describing himself as a “black Nazi” in a post in 2010, and alleging that same year that “slavery is not bad.”
“Some people need to be slaves. I wish they would bring it back. I would certainly buy a few,” Robinson said.
He also expressed support for Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in a post in 2012, stating that he’d prefer the genocidal dictator over the leadership of then-President Barack Obama.
“I’d take Hitler over any of the sh*t that’s in Washington right now!” Robinson wrote.
Robinson also attacked civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., calling him a “f*cking commie bastard” and deriding him with racist epithets.
“I’m not in the KKK. They don’t let blacks join,” Robinson said. “If I was in the KKK I would have called him Martin Lucifer Koon!”
Robinson also called King a “huckster” and “worse than a maggot.”
Robinson expressed other racist views in the forums, including using antisemitic slurs to describe prominent Jewish Americans and referring to Muslims as “rag-headed bastards.” He regularly used homophobic terms on the site, CNN reported.
In one disturbing post, Robinson gleefully recounted how he had once spied on women in public gym locker rooms when he was a teenager, using an unlocked room’s access to vents connecting to those areas to do so.
“I sat there for about an hour and watched as several girls came in and showered,” Robinson wrote, expressing his disappointment that the room he had accessed was later locked.
The CNN report provides further insight into Robinson’s propensity to spout off racist and vitriolic opinions at whim. However, Robinson has long engaged in similar behavior in public, both on social media and in speeches in front of live audiences.
He has, for example, described the Affordable Care Act, commonly called Obamacare, as akin to enslavement. He has also said that LGBTQ people are “filth,” and suggested violence as a means to prevent transgender people from using restrooms that correspond to their gender.
Robinson’s past controversies also include denying the Holocaust, suggesting that Pearl Harbor was an inside job, attacking victims of mass shootings, denying the recognition of reproductive and abortion rights, and suggesting that women shouldn’t be allowed to vote in elections.
Despite reporting on these statements and the latest CNN report, Robinson has promised to remain in the race, denouncing the article against him as “salacious tabloid lies” despite overwhelming evidence that he was responsible for the posts. The deadline to change names on North Carolina ballots was Thursday night.
The reporting will undoubtedly hurt Robinson’s chances of winning the governorship against his Democratic opponent, Attorney General Josh Stein, who has led Robinson in the polls for months. A recent Carolina Journal poll shows Stein is ahead of Robinson by more than 6 percentage points, no doubt due in large part to Robinson’s past statements.
But the reporting could also negatively impact Republicans in races elsewhere, including the presidential election. GOP nominee for president Donald Trump has campaigned with Robinson in North Carolina, holding rallies in the swing state where he also promoted Robinson as a candidate for governor, despite numerous reports on his past remarks.
Trump has enthusiastically endorsed Robinson, describing him as “Martin Luther King on steroids” — an ironic choice of words, given Robinson’s disdain for the civil rights icon.
“I think you’re better than Martin Luther King. I think you are Martin Luther King times two,” Trump said in March at one of his rallies.
Trump did not rescind his support of Robinson even after the gubernatorial candidate added to his history of appalling statements by saying in June that “some folks need killing.” Upon the release of this latest CNN report, the Trump campaign has tried to sidestep the issue entirely.
When asked by NBC News to comment on Robinson, the Trump campaign didn’t mention Robinson at all, instead simply stating that “North Carolina is [a] vital part” of the former president’s plan to win the election.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party is already running ads highlighting the relationship between the two Republicans, airing the spots in North Carolina to encourage voters to reject both Robinson and Trump.
Political commentators have said that the Trump campaign cannot ignore the issue.
“Donald Trump and NC GOP leaders embraced Mark Robinson for years knowing who he was and what he stood for including disrespect for women and inciting violence,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) said on X. “They reap what they sow.”
Alyssa Farah Griffin, a White House Director of Strategic Communications under Trump who is now a critic of the former president, reminded members of the GOP that any fallout from Robinson is of their own making.
“The problem, Republicans, is that Mark Robinson *was* vetted,” she said. “There was ample evidence of his antisemitic & racist past comments. The problem is the NCGOP & Trump World chose to ignore what the vetting showed & back him anyway.”
“The Mark Robinson story is actually a broader story about the Republican Party,” wrote Ahmed Baba, columnist for The Independent. “When you empower a shameless depraved grifter like Donald Trump as the head of your party, your party will attract other shameless depraved grifters. The GOP is filled with weirdo frauds for a reason.”
Ultimately, Trump’s connection to Robinson — and his strong endorsement of him — may cost him the presidential election.
“The question now is whether Trump’s embrace of Robinson hurts him in North Carolina — a state he can’t afford to lose,” Political Wire’s Taegan Goddard said. “Robinson could actually cost Trump the entire presidential race.”
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