WILMINGTON, N.C. — Former President Donald Trump made no mention of North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson during his appearance at a rally in Wilmington on Saturday, but the controversy surrounding CNN’s sensational report on Robinson on Thursday continued to dominate political discussions across the state.
Instead, Trump used the incident to decline an offer to debate with Vice President Kamala Harris on October 23 on CNN and to make a familiar series of confused and often false and outlandish remarks in which he sharply attacked the Biden-Harris administration and promised almost immediate change in the nation if elected.
He said that if he won in November, “borders would be secured immediately,” “prices of household goods would plummet,” energy prices would fall in half within a year, homeless camps would “disappear” and there would be “world peace.” He falsely claimed that every job created in the United States in recent years had gone to a migrant worker.
He also referred to the vice president several times as “Comrade Harris” and claimed that if she won, “40 to 50 million illegal aliens” would be in the country and “steal your money.” A Harris administration, on the other hand, would “confiscate all guns,” try to fill the Supreme Court with 25 judges and “destroy the American dream forever.”
Robinson, who was not at the Trump event, was scheduled to appear at a 6 p.m. meet-and-greet at Fayetteville Motor Speedway on Saturday, according to a post on the venue’s Facebook page. Trump on Saturday pointed to the attendance of other GOP politicians, including Sen. Ted Budd and Congressmen Dan Bishop and David Rouzer.
According to CNN’s investigation, over a decade ago, before the start of his political career, Robinson referred to himself as a “black NAZI” and a “pervert” in messages he posted on a porn website and said “slavery is not bad.”
CNN also reported that Robinson, who has repeatedly expressed hostility toward transgender people, wrote that he enjoyed watching transgender pornography. He also said that when he was 14, he enjoyed “watching” women in public showers at gyms.
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On Friday, Politico reported that an email address belonging to Robinson was registered on Ashley Madison, a website for married people looking for an affair. “An adviser to Robinson, who was granted anonymity to speak freely, confirmed to POLITICO that the email address in question belongs to Robinson.”
As in the case of the CNN report, an official spokesman for the Robinson campaign team denied the report.
It was the second time in four days that Robinson was absent from a major Republican campaign event – he did not appear at vice presidential candidate JD Vance’s rally in Raleigh on Wednesday.
The scandal surrounding Robinson, whom Trump had previously enthusiastically supported and repeatedly compared positively to the late Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., ensured that Saturday’s event attracted additional attention across the country.
Although Robinson was already trailing far behind his Democratic opponent, Attorney General Josh Stein, in numerous national polls before this week’s revelations, the new reports have led some experts to say a free fall in his campaign could create a “reverse coattail effect” for Trump, helping to swing the state and its 16 electoral votes to Harris. Recent polls in the presidential race suggest that Harris and Trump are virtually tied in North Carolina, and that a shift in even a relatively small portion of voters could prove fatal to the Trump campaign’s hopes in the state.
As Aaron Blake, senior political editor at the Washington Post, explained in an analysis Friday, Robinson’s approval ratings were “terrible” long before last week, and it’s easy to link him to Trump. In fact, as NC Newsline reported yesterday, the Harris team has already launched a multimedia campaign to do just that.
This comes from Blake’s analysis:
“What kind of Trump voters might that deter? Trump has maintained his political standing over the years, despite his own burdens. But it’s not as if all of his supporters are true MAGA supporters. He also relies on more traditional Republicans who may not love him but support his team. (Remember that during the Republican primaries, as many as 1 in 5 voters continued to vote against him even after Nikki Haley dropped out.)”
According to Blake, Robinson’s continued presence on the stage – he missed the state’s deadline to withdraw from the race and promised to stay – could “strengthen the strategy of the Harris campaign, which promises to leave the chaos and extremism of the last nine years behind.”
“It may not be enough to get the Democrats through in a stubborn state that they have only won once since 1976 (2008), but it certainly doesn’t hurt. And if it does help them flip the state and steal 16 electoral votes, it would make Trump’s path to victory much more difficult.”
This report was first published by NC Newsline, part of the nonprofit news network States Newsroom. It is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) nonprofit organization. NC Newsline maintains its editorial independence. If you have questions, contact Editor Rob Schofield: (email protected). Follow NC Newsline on Facebook and X.
