Donald Trump Ignores Mark Robinson Scandal at North Carolina Rally

Former President Donald Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, did not mention embattled North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson amid his recent scandal during a rally speech in Wilmington on Saturday.
Robinson, a Republican whom Trump has endorsed for governor of North Carolina, has been a frequent presence at Trump’s campaign events in the state. However, Robinson did not speak at Saturday’s rally.
Earlier this week, Robinson’s gubernatorial campaign for the Tar Heel State was rocked by a CNN report alleging that Robinson made racist and sexist posts on a pornography site over a decade ago. Robinson has repeatedly denied writing the posts and has said he’ll stay in the race.
Robinson’s campaign communications director Mike Lonergan blamed the reported posts on Josh Stein, Robinson’s Democratic opponent, in a statement emailed to Newsweek on Friday.
“Everything Josh Stein [and] the Democrats say about Mark Robinson is either an outright lie or twisted so far out of context it might as well be,” Lonergan said. “The people of North Carolina have had enough lies from career politicians like Josh Stein—and that’s why they’ll elect Mark Robinson governor on November 5.”
Newsweek reached out to Trump’s communications director, Steven Cheung, and Robinson’s campaign via email for comment late Saturday afternoon.
Trump has praised Robinson in the past, calling the Black politician “Martin Luther King on steroids.” But on Saturday there was no word of the lieutenant governor in Trump’s hourlong speech, in which the former president mentioned other North Carolina Republicans such as Senator Ted Budd and Representative Dan Bishop.
Following CNN’s report, the Trump campaign issued a vague statement that did not name Robinson but said North Carolina is a “vital part” of the plan to secure a second Trump victory.
Trump won the state in the 2016 and 2020 elections. However, his margin of victory in 2020 was slim with him receiving 49.9 percent of the vote and President Joe Biden getting 48.6 percent. Democrats are hoping to flip the state in Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ favor as Trump is currently only 0.2 points ahead of her (47.5 to 47.3 percent), according to poll aggregator FiveThirtyEight.
On Thursday, CNN reported that from 2008 to 2012, Robinson allegedly made a series of inflammatory comments on a message board of the pornography site Nude Africa, which included calling himself a “black NAZI” and a “perv.”
Despite Robinson using anti-transgender rhetoric in recent years, including when he used the word “filth” while discussing gay and transgender people during a 2021 speech at a church, he also allegedly said on the messaging board that he enjoyed watching transgender pornography.
Robinson called the alleged posts “salacious tabloid lies” to CNN and in a video message, he reassured his supporters that “those are not the words of Mark Robinson.”
Update 9/21/24, 4:39 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.