Former President Donald Trump was criticized for playing dumb when asked if he'll "pull" his endorsement of North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson in the wake of revelations about Robinson's racial and sexual comments.
Robinson—who polls show trails behind Democratic nominee Josh Stein, the current Attorney General—pledged last week to stay in the governor's race despite a CNN report alleging he made explicit racial and sexual comments on an online message board, stating he won’t be pushed out by "salacious tabloid lies."
According to the report, Robinson posted inflammatory remarks on a pornography website’s message board over a decade ago, where he referred to himself as a "black NAZI!" and expressed support for reinstating slavery. Though Robinson has a recent history of anti-transgender rhetoric, the investigation uncovered archived messages where he mentioned enjoying transgender pornography and referred to himself as a "perv."
Robinson denies making these comments, which date back to before his political career and his current role as North Carolina’s Lieutenant Governor. However, CNN linked the comments to Robinson by identifying a username that matched numerous biographical details and a shared email address.
The comments, which were graphic and sexual in nature, were posted between 2008 and 2012 on a pornographic website called "Nude Africa." The username used was "minisoldr," a handle Robinson frequently employed online. His profile on the site listed his full name and an email address he had used on various websites for decades.
So, when Trump—who has previously referred to Robinson as "a star," "an outstanding person," "Martin Luther King times two," and "one of the hottest politicians in the United States of America"—was asked on Thursday whether he would "pull" his endorsement of Robinson in the wake of the scandal, Trump did what Trump does: lied:
"I don't know the situation."
Then he walked off.
You can hear what Trump said in the video below.
Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign has seized on Robinson's scandal to draw in voters in North Carolina, where the presidential race is remarkably tight. The Associated Press reported that "virtually every message" that her campaign delivered to North Carolina voters this week "featured Robinson, who has been abandoned by many Republican officials — and his own staff."
And even though Trump has not rescinded his endorsement, he and his running mate J.D. Vance avoided mentioning Robinson during their four combined appearances in North Carolina since Saturday. Vance was finally compelled to address his party’s gubernatorial candidate when asked by reporters, calling Robinson's remarks "pretty gross, to put it mildly."
Additionally, Republican National Committee co-chair Michael Whatley, a North Carolina native, omitted Robinson while listing the state's most important elected officials during a campaign stop in Charlotte.
So Trump is, of course, very much aware of "the situation"—and he was immediately called out for his brazen attempt to play dumb.
The CNN report on Robinson noted that many of his comments on Nude Africa stand in contrast to his public stances on issues such as abortion and transgender rights.
Publicly, Robinson has fiercely argued that people should use bathrooms only that correspond to the gender they were assigned at birth. He’s also said transgender women should be arrested for using women’s restrooms because "we’re going to protect our women.”
Yet privately under the username minisoldr on Nude Africa, Robinson graphically described his own sexual arousal as an adult from the memory of secretly “peeping” on women in public gym showers as a 14-year-old. Robinson recounted the story as a memory he said he still fantasized about, saying he "sat there for about an hour and watched as several girls came in and showered" and "went peeping again the next morning."
The exposé was published a few weeks after the North Carolina publication The Assemblyreported that Robinson frequented local video pornography shops in the 1990s and 2000s. The story cited six people who interacted and saw him frequent in the stores in Greensboro, North Carolina. A spokesperson for Robinson called the story false and a “complete fiction.”
Harris's team is optimistic that the ongoing Robinson controversy could discourage some potential Trump voters from heading to the polls and win over some of the 250,000 voters who backed Trump’s Republican rival Nikki Haley in the North Carolina primary earlier this year.
Democrats also tout a stronger ground operation, with 27 campaign offices across the state, staffed by over 250 paid field workers and more than 26,000 volunteers. Most of these volunteers joined after Harris replaced President Joe Biden on the ticket.
