Trump and Mark Robinson. Photo illustration courtesy of Thomas Levinson.

Dear Commons Community,

North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson will not appear at former President Donald Trump ’s rally today in the battleground state following a CNN report about Robinson’s alleged inflammatory online posts. Robinson has been a constant presence at Trump campaign events in the state, but new salacious revelations about his past have changed that. As reported by The Associated Press.

Robinson allegedly wrote that he was a “Black Nazi” and that “slavery is not bad,” saying that he wished the institution would return so he could buy slaves. In another post, the socially conservative politician who has previously referred to “transgenderism” as “filth,” wrote about how much he enjoyed watching transgender porn. He also bragged about being a Peeping Tom, detailing a memory about watching girls in the shower when he was 14 years old. 

Robinson has been a frequent presence at Trump’s North Carolina campaign stops. The Republican nominee has referred to Robinson as “Martin Luther King on steroids” and long praised him. But in the wake of a CNN report, the Trump campaign issued a statement that didn’t mention Robinson and instead spoke generally about how North Carolina was key to the campaign’s efforts.  

Robinson’s campaign didn’t respond to a text yesterday seeking confirmation on his Saturday plans. The deadline in state law for Robinson to withdraw as the Republican candidate for governor passed late Thursday. State Republican leaders could have picked a replacement had a withdrawal occurred.

Robinson has denied writing the posts, which include racial and sexual comments. He said he wouldn’t be forced out of the race by “salacious tabloid lies.” While Robinson won his GOP gubernatorial primary in March, he’s been trailing in several recent polls to Democratic nominee Josh Stein, the state’s attorney general.

“Let me reassure you the things that you will see in that story — those are not the words of Mark Robinson,” he told supporters in a video released Thursday by his campaign. “You know my words. You know my character.”

State law says a gubernatorial nominee had until the day before the first absentee ballots requested by military and overseas voters are distributed to withdraw. They were distributed starting yesterday.

Robinson has a history of inflammatory comments that Stein has said made him too extreme to lead North Carolina. They already have contributed to the prospect that campaign struggles for Robinson could help Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris win the state’s 16 electoral votes.

Democrats jumped on Robinson and other Republicans after the report aired, showing on social media photos of Robinson with Trump or with other GOP candidates, attempting to tarnish them by association. Losing swing district races for a congressional seat and the General Assembly would endanger the GOP’s control of the U.S. House and retaining veto-proof majorities at the legislature.

“The fallout is going to be huge,” Chris Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University, said Friday. “The Democrats are counting on this … having a big effect.” But Cooper said Republicans could limit problems to the governor’s race only if upward ticket-splitting trends among voters continue.

Harris’ campaign rolled out a new ad  it calls the first to link Trump to a down-ballot candidate. The commercial alternates between Trump’s praise for Robinson and the lieutenant governor’s comments which his critics have argued show his support for a statewide abortion ban without exceptions. Robinson’s campaign have said that’s not true.

The Democratic National Committee is also running billboards in three major North Carolina cities showing a photo of Robinson and Trump and comments Trump has said about him. And a fundraising appeal yesterday by Jeff Jackson, Democratic attorney general candidate, also includes a past video showing Republican opponent Dan Bishop saying he endorsed Robinson.

“Every North Carolinian when they go to vote ought to look at whether a candidate has done that, because that sends a strong message about who you are as a candidate,” Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, a top Harris surrogate, said at a Friday news conference.

CNN’s story, which describes a series of comments that it said Robinson posted on the message board more than a decade ago, sent tremors through the state’s political class, particularly Republicans.

While the state Republican Party came to Robinson’s defense late Thursday pointing out he’s “categorically denied the allegations,” party Chairman Jason Simmons put out his own statement calling them “deeply troubling” and that Robinson “needs to explain them to the people of North Carolina.”

U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who endorsed a Robinson rival in the primary, said on X that Thursday “was a tough day, but we must stay focused on the races we can win.” He didn’t mention the governor’s race.

Trump and Robinson are two birds of a feather!

Tony

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