Sen. Lindsey Graham on Sunday said he is shocked by the “beyond unnerving” accusations against neighboring North Carolina gubernatorial hopeful and fellow GOPer Mark Robinson.
“If they’re true, he’s unfit to serve for office,” the South Carolina pol bluntly told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “If they’re not true, he has the best lawsuit in the history of the country for libel.”
Last week, Robinson, North Carolina’s first black lieutenant governor in the swing presidential state, denied a story from CNN claiming he made incendiary sexual and racially charged posts in the message board of the porn site Nude Africa between 2008 and 2012.
Among the litany of claims were accusations that Robinson fashioned himself as a “Black Nazi,” said, “Slavery is not bad…I wish they would bring it back” and recalled “peeping” in on women in the shower of a gym when he was a teenager.
Robinson blasted the report as “salacious tabloid trash” in a firm denial.
“Let me reassure you, the things that you will see in that story, those are not the words of Mark Robinson,” he said, vowing to stay in the race.
Many top Republicans have echoed Graham’s sentiment that these are merely accusations against Robinson.
But Graham also added, “He needs to do more, in my view.
“He has a right to defend himself. He has an obligation to defend himself. This is hanging over his campaign. He’s a political zombie if he does not offer a defense to this that’s credible.”
Republican vice presidential hopeful JD Vance, asked by an NBC reporter about the scandal, said of Robinson, “I don’t believe him, I don’t not believe him.
“I just think that you have to sometimes let these things play out in the court of public opinion,” Vance said.
The bombshell story rocked Republicans in North Carolina, where Robinson has long been trailing in the contest for governor.
North Carolina is widely seen as one of the top seven battleground states in the presidential contest. The state last backed a Democrat in 2008.
Former President Donald Trump has a threadbare lead of about 0.1 percentage points in the latest RealClearPolitics aggregate of a two-way race between him and Veep and Democratic foe Kamala Harris.
Robinson is trailing Noth Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein by 9.4 points, according to the latest RCP average.
Stein has publicly doubted Robinson’s denial.
“If you look at what he said on the posts, it was in keeping on what he has said publicly on Facebook that are still on his Facebook page,” Stein told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
“Mark Robinson is absolutely unfit to be the governor of North Carolina,” he continued. “Mark Robinson could not exist without the support of Donald Trump.”
Incumbent North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D), is term-limited, which had raised Republican hopes ahead of the election that they could flip the governor’s office red.
Democrats have rejoiced over the scandal engulfing Robinson.
“It’s great news for Democrats,” Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “I mean, Robinson is actually, he’s the new dream candidate to run against.”
