Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) said Sunday that North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R) owes his constituents an explanation following the “alarming” allegations outlined in a recent explosive CNN report.
During an interview on CNN's “State of the Union,” host Jake Tapper grilled Cotton about CNN's recent coverage of North Carolina's Republican gubernatorial candidates and about past comments Robinson has made publicly about Jewish people.
Asked if he liked the lieutenant governor and whether he thought Robinson should be the next governor of North Carolina, Cotton said, “Jake, I've seen these allegations and they are concerning allegations.”
After Tapper pointed out that Robinson had made anti-Semitic comments on a public Facebook page, Cotton said, “He owes the people of North Carolina more of an explanation on this matter.”
“But we're talking about a presidential election here that matters to everyone, not just our people. [of] “One state,” he continued, “Kamala Harris has a lot more explaining to do to the American people.”
When asked whether former President Trump should still support Robinson's gubernatorial bid, Cotton replied, “I leave that up to President Trump, but most importantly, I leave that up to the people of North Carolina.”
CNN published a shocking report about Robinson on Thursday, revealing that more than a decade ago he had made a wide range of inflammatory comments on a pornography message board, including calling himself a “black Nazi” and calling for the reinstatement of slavery.
The posts were made by an account with the username “minisoldr,” which CNN identified as belonging to Robinson based on the account's listing of his full name, his use of that username on other sites, an email address Robinson had used elsewhere, and biographical details matching his profile.
Robinson said he would continue his campaign despite concerns about the viability of his candidacy. Claimed in the video Shortly before the article was published, Robinson posted on social platform X that the Democratic candidate Josh Stein's campaign had leaked the information to CNN, but Robinson claimed the details of the information were false.
“I want to assure you that what you will see in that article will not be the words of Mark Robinson,” he said. “You know my words. You know my character. And you know that I have been completely transparent in this campaign and before.”
“We're staying in this race. We're in it to win,” he said.
