Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) demanded Friday that Republican North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson either pursue legal action against CNN or end his bid to be the state’s governor after the outlet attributed disturbing posts on a pornography website to the gubernatorial candidate.
“If the reporting on Mark Robinson is a total media fabrication, he needs to take immediate legal action,” Tillis wrote on X.
“If the reporting is true, he owes it to President Trump and every Republican to take accountability for his actions and put the future of NC & our party before himself,” the senior senator from North Carolina added.
Tillis’ ultimatum comes one day after CNN reported that Robinson, 56, described himself as a “black Nazi” in one of several inflammatory posts made between 2008 and 2012 on pornography website Nude Africa.
“Slavery is not bad. Some people need to be slaves. I wish they would bring it back. I would certainly buy a few,” the lieutenant governor wrote in another post on the site’s message board, according to the outlet.
Robinson referred to himself as a “perv,” recalled “peeping” on women showering in a public gym and called Muslims “little rag-headed bastards” in other shocking posts, CNN reported.
The outlet determined the posts were made by Robinson after identifying that the Nude Africa user and the GOP gubernatorial candidate shared several biographical details as well as an email address.
Robinson has denied that he made the posts, calling the report “outrageous lies.”
“Let me reassure you the things that you will see in that story, those are not the words of Mark Robinson,” he said in a video posted on X before the story dropped. “You know my words, you know my character and you know I’ve been completely transparent in this race and before.”
Robinson also said that he would not be dropping out of the race.
The North Carolina Republican Party has also not called on the lieutenant governor to end his campaign, calling the report a “smear” and attempt by “the Left” to turn the election into a “personality contest.”
A Victory Insights poll released Thursday has Stein leading Robinson 47% to 42% — with 7% of respondents backing former President Donald Trump but undecided on Robinson.
