A Republican candidate for governor in North Carolina has insisted he will not withdraw from the race after it emerged he made controversial comments on a pornography website more than a decade ago.
Mark Robinson described a CNN report that accused him of calling himself “a black fascist” on an adult forum as “filthy tabloid lies.”
According to anonymous sources cited by the Carolina Journal, he has been under pressure from the state Republican Party and members of Donald Trump’s campaign team to drop out of the race in this swing state.
Trump himself did not mention the report in his speech at an event on anti-Semitism in Washington on Thursday night.
Robinson, 56, is a former furniture manufacturer who was elected the state’s first black lieutenant governor in 2020.
He won the gubernatorial nomination in March after receiving support from Trump, who called him “Martin Luther King on a power platform.”
Robinson’s race comes in a potentially decisive state that Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is hoping to win over Republicans.
According to a CNN report published Thursday, Robinson visited a pornography website called Nude Africa from 2008 to 2012 under the username “minisoldr.”
According to CNN, minisoldr posted about enjoying watching “transgender” porn and added: “Yes, I’m a ‘pervert’ too!”
The BBC has not verified CNN’s report.
In 2021, Robinson refused to apologise after being criticised for saying that children in school should not learn about “transgenderism, homosexuality, or any dirty stuff like that”.
In a video posted to X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday, as the CNN article was published, he denied wrongdoing.
“I can assure you that what you will see in that story is not Mark Robinson’s words,” he said.
“We are staying in this race. We are in it to win.”
He said he was the victim of a “high-tech execution” carried out by his white Democratic opponent, Josh Stein.
“The people of North Carolina already know Mark Robinson is completely unqualified to be governor,” Stein’s campaign said in a statement.
Polls show Stein, a Harvard-educated lawyer and current attorney general of North Carolina, leading in the race.
The North Carolina Republican Party defended Robinson in a statement, saying the “Left” was “trying to undermine him through personal attacks.”
Trump himself did not mention the controversy in his speech at the American Israel Council National Summit on Thursday night, in which he vowed to “stop the poison of anti-Semitism from spreading across America and around the world.”
He lamented his lack of support from Jewish voters, saying that if he had not won, “the Jews would really suffer a lot”.
Harris’ campaign posted a video on social media reminding voters of Trump’s previous praise for Robinson.
The deadline to withdraw from the gubernatorial race is Thursday night, with mail-in ballots due to be mailed out Friday. Early voting in the state begins in less than a month.
Recent polls in North Carolina show Harris and Trump tied among likely voters.
The Tar Heel State is a Republican stronghold, with only one Democratic presidential candidate winning here in more than 20 years.
Trump narrowly defeated Joe Biden in North Carolina four years ago by less than 2%.
Democrats have campaigned heavily in the state this election season.
