At least four senior staffers from North Carolina Republican Lt. Governor Mark Robinson's gubernatorial campaign have resigned following reports about posts he allegedly made to a pornography site more than a decade ago.
His campaign released a statement on Sunday confirming that various senior staff members had resigned, just three days after CNN broke the story that Robinson had made lewd comments on a pornography site in the late 2000s, including calling himself a “black Nazi.”
General consultant and senior advisor Konrad Pogorzelski III, campaign manager Chris Rodriguez, finance director Heather Willier and deputy campaign manager Jason Rizk all resigned. The campaign promised new personnel announcements would be made soon.
“I thank my team members for their hard work and wish them the best in their future endeavors as they make the difficult choice to step away from the campaign trail, and I look forward to announcing new staff roles in the near future,” Robinson said in a statement. “My campaign will continue to focus on the substantive issues at stake in this election, including building a growing economy from Murphy to Manteo, lowering taxes and eliminating unnecessary bureaucracy, keeping politics out of the classroom, and cracking down on violent crime and dangerous drugs.”
Battleground state Republican denies involvement in porn scandal, calling it “tabloid trash”
FILE – North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson speaks before Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Asheville, North Carolina, on Aug. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Luke, File)
Robinson expressed optimism that he can defeat Democratic gubernatorial candidate and incumbent state Attorney General Josh Stein in the November election.
“Republican support in North Carolina has been consistently underrepresented in polls over the last few cycles, and as we continue to ramp up efforts across the state, with a large proportion of voters still undecided, I believe our campaign is in a strong position to appeal to voters and win on November 5th,” Robinson said.
According to Robinson's campaign website, he is scheduled to appear at an event in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, on Monday morning.
CNN's Thursday report uncovered past posts allegedly left by Robinson on a pornography message board in which he is said to have called himself a “black Nazi,” said he enjoys transgender porn, said in 2012 that he preferred Hitler to then-President Obama and criticized the late Martin Luther King Jr. as “worse than a maggot.”
Republican presidential candidate and former president Donald Trump kisses his granddaughter Carolina Trump while speaking at a campaign event at Wilmington International Airport, Saturday, September 21, 2024, in Wilmington, North Carolina. (AP Photo/Chris Seward)
Robinson denied the posts and said Thursday he would not be thrown out of the election by “salacious tabloid lies.”
“You've seen Josh Stein's half-truths and outright lies in these ads time and time again, and now the article he leaked to CNN is now public. Rest assured, what you see in that article is not Mark Robinson's words. You know my words, my character, and that I have been completely transparent throughout this campaign and before,” Robinson said in a video message. “Clarence Thomas once famously said he was the victim of a high-tech lynching. Now, it appears that Mark Robinson has also become the victim, by a man who refuses to stand on stage and debate with me about the real issues facing you.”
Robinson avoided directly discussing the controversy at a campaign event for governor at a race track in Fayetteville on Saturday night, according to the Associated Press.
North Carolina GOP gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson faces calls to withdraw amid rumors of impending shock wave
The incident came after former President Trump made no mention of Robinson at a rally in Wilmington, about 90 miles away, earlier in the day. Robinson had been a frequent presence at Trump's campaign events in North Carolina until Saturday. The Republican presidential candidate endorsed Robinson, who would become North Carolina's first Black governor if elected, in the primary.
Stein said Sunday on CNN's “State of the Union” that Robinson is “totally unfit and unfit to be governor of North Carolina, and we're going to do everything in our power to stop that from happening.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-N.Y., said Sunday on NBC's “Meet the Press” that Robinson should be given a chance to defend himself against the allegations, which he called “disturbing.” He said Robinson's “will not offer a credible defense, he's a political zombie,” and argued that Trump would not lose any battleground states anyway.
Republican presidential candidate and former president Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Wilmington International Airport, Saturday, September 21, 2024, in Wilmington, North Carolina. (AP Photo/Chris Seward)
“If they're true, he's unfit to hold public office,” Graham said of the allegations. “If they're not true, he's facing the largest defamation lawsuit in the history of our country.”
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Polls show Trump and Harris in a close race in North Carolina and nationally, and Democrats seized the opportunity to highlight the Trump-Robinson connection, running billboards featuring the pair together and a new ad for Harris' campaign highlighting the Republican candidate's ties.
Fox News' Matthew Reidy and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
