What happened
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the Republican nominee for governor, posted racist and sexist comments on a pornography site forum, including identifying himself as a "Black Nazi," CNN said on Thursday. An email address CNN used to confirm Robinson's porn account was also registered on Ashley Madison, a website for married people seeking affairs, Politico said. Robinson rejected calls to drop out of the race against Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein.
Who said what
CNN said it was disclosing "only a small portion" of Robinson's comments from 2008 to 2012 on the site "Nude Africa," due to their "graphic nature." But it did record him saying "slavery is not bad" and "I wish they would bring it back"; admitting he liked to watch "tranny on girl porn"; and claiming he would "take Hitler over any of the shit that's in Washington" during Barack Obama's presidency.
Robinson told CNN "these are not our words" or "anything that is characteristic of me." Presented with the "litany of evidence connecting him" with the account, CNN said, Robinson said he wouldn't "get into the minutia of how somebody manufactured this, these salacious tabloid lies." The problem for Robinson is the comments "sound extremely similar to what he's said elsewhere," David Graham said at The Atlantic, and his frequenting of a porn site doesn't "stretch incredulity" after a report this month found he frequented porn shops in the 1990s and 2000s.
Donald Trump, who enthusiastically endorsed Robinson in March, has "foisted damaging candidates on the GOP" for years, Aaron Blake said at The Washington Post, but for once it could cause a "real problem for Trump personally," turning off voters in a crucial state he barely won in 2020 and is up for grabs this year.
What next?
Yesterday was the final day to withdraw from the race before ballots are printed, The Raleigh News & Observer said. So "Republicans now appear to be stuck with Robinson," The Atlantic's Graham said. "They can't say they weren't warned."
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