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 by his campaign. “You know my words. You know my character.”
“We are staying in this race," Robinson said in the video. "We are in it to win it."
CNN reported that Robinson, who would be North Carolina’s first black governor, attacked civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in searing terms and once referred to himself as a “black NAZI.” CNN also reported that Robinson wrote of being aroused by a memory of “peeping” women in gym showers when he was 14 along with an appreciation of transgender pornography.
The Associated Press has not independently confirmed that Robinson wrote and posted the messages. CNN said it matched details of the account on the pornographic website forum to other online accounts held by Robinson by comparing usernames, a known email address and his full name.
The state GOP said in a statement late Thursday that while Robinson has “categorically denied the allegations" it wouldn’t “stop the Left from trying to demonize him via personal attacks.”
