A CNN report connected Robinson to a username that made several graphic posts on a porn site from 2008 to 2012, roiling NC Republicans ahead of a key election deadline on Thursday.
Mark Robinson made a litany of comments on a pornography message board between 2008 and 2012, including posts where he called himself a “black NAZI!,” expressed support for slavery, admitted to secretly watching girls shower at a public gym when he was a young teen, and seemed to lament being unable to join the Ku Klux Klan, CNN reported on Thursday.
The CNN investigation found several posts written on the forum Nude Africa under “minisoldr,” a username that Robinson has used in other settings and that was tied to an email address he’s often used.
Robinson also repeatedly attacked Martin Luther King. Jr and said he preferred Adolf Hitler over the federal leadership during President Barack Obama’s administration, according to CNN’s findings.
The blockbuster piece was preempted by hours of reports that North Carolina Republicans are pressuring Robinson to drop out of the governor’s race, which polls have shown is increasingly slipping away from him following weeks of negative media stories.
Shortly before the story was posted, Robinson released a video on his social media sites calling the allegations “salacious tabloid lies.”
He accused his Democratic opponent Josh Stein, the current attorney general, of leaking the story to CNN.
“The news media is at it again, my opponent is at it again,” Robinson said.
He denied the allegations and rejected any notion that he would drop out.
“Let me reassure you, the things you will see in this story are not the words of Mark Robinson,” Robinson said.
“We are staying in this race. We are in it to win it.”
The Carolina Journal first reported the private calls for Robinson to withdraw from the race.
Soon after the CNN story posted, Politico reported that someone had used Robinson’s email address to open an account on Ashley Madison, a site allowing married people to secretly seek affairs.
An adviser to Robinson, Politico wrote, confirmed the email address was Robinson’s.
‘I went peeping again the next morning’
CNN wrote in the article posted online that it is” reporting only a small portion of Robinson’s comments on the website given their graphic nature.”
Here are some of the comments CNN uncovered:
- “I like watching tranny on girl porn!,” he wrote using an expletive. “It takes the man out while leaving the man in!” (Robinson has since said transgender women should be arrested for using public bathrooms and suggested that transgender people should not be allowed to serve in the military or fly planes).
- “I came to a spot that was a dead end but had two big vent covers over it! It just so happened it overlooked the showers! I sat there for about an hour and watched as several girls came in and showered.”
- “I went peeping again the next morning,” Robinson wrote. “But after that … the ladder was locked! So those two times where [sic] the only times I got to do it! Ahhhhh memories!!!!”
- “I’m a black NAZI!”
- “Slavery is not bad. Some people need to be slaves. I wish they would bring it (slavery) back. I would certainly buy a few.”
- “I’d take Hitler over any of the sh*t that’s in Washington right now!” (2012)
- “Get that f*cking commie bastard off the National Mall!,” he wrote in 2011, after the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial was erected in Washington.
- I’m not in the KKK. They don’t let blacks join. If I was in the KKK I would have called him Martin Lucifer Koon!”
CNN said it had connected the posts to Robinson in several ways.
On the Nude Africa website in both comments and his profile,” CNN reported, “minisoldr offered numerous details that align precisely with Robinson’s personal history.”
“Screenshots show Robinson used ‘minisoldr’ all over the internet,” CNN wrote.
Minisoldr said on his Nude Africa profile that his name was “mark robinson,” and cited an email address Robinson used in other sites.
Additionally, CNN reported, “Minisoldr mentioned in 2008 being married for 18 years, which corresponds with Robinson’s marriage to Yolanda Hill in 1990. In 2011, minisoldr wrote he had been married 21 years. Minisoldr wrote in a 2011 post that he lived in Greensboro, North Carolina, the same town where Robinson lived at the time and currently lives.”
Minisoldr also used several unique words and phrases on Nude Africa that Robinson has used across his social media sites for years, including “I don’t give a frogs fat ass,” and “dunder head.”
‘North Carolinians deserve a viable choice in this election’
The latest story adds to a torrent of uncovered videos and reporting about Robinson in recent weeks that highlight viewpoints even many Republicans see as extreme. Republicans have increasingly been expressing concerns in private that Robinson cannot win in November and could even drag down the rest of the Republicans on the ballot and damage Donald Trump’s chances of winning in North Carolina.
In the last several weeks, polls have shown Robinson slipping further behind his Democratic opponent Josh Stein, the current attorney general. In a recent WRAL poll, Stein held a 14-point lead.
With the latest bombshell, the private unease broke into the public, even if the sources who spoke to the Carolina Journal remained anonymous.
“Sources with direct knowledge have spoken with Carolina Journal on the condition of anonymity and said that Robinson is under pressure from staff and members of the Trump campaign to withdraw from the governor’s race due to the nature of the story,” the Journal wrote. “Earlier this week leaders in the Trump campaign privately told Robinson that he was not welcome at rallies for Trump or vice presidential candidate JD Vance. He was slated to speak at the Vance appearance on Wednesday, but his office announced that Robinson had tested positive for COVID.”
As rumors spread on Thursday, however, and details began to emerge, some Republicans went on the record with their unease.
Scott Lassiter, a Republican candidate for the North Carolina Senate, said in a statement to reporters that Robinson should suspend his campaign.
“If the recent allegations against Robinson are true, combined with his previous public rhetoric, I believe it’s time for him to step aside,” Lassiter wrote.
“North Carolinians deserve a viable choice in this election.”
Little Time for a plan B
If Robinson were to suspend his campaign this late in the process however, it would cause all sorts of chaos.
The deadline for Robinson to be removed from the ballot has already passed, and the NC Board of Elections is set to send out the first absentee ballots on Friday. The deadline to withdraw is 11:59 p.m. tonight.
If Robinson does suspend his campaign, the state Republican Party would be able to choose his replacement, even if Robinson’s name stays on the ballot.
In that case, under state law, any votes Robinson would get would go to his replacement.
‘I think you’re better than Martin Luther King’
Though some Republicans seem to be fleeing from the Robinson campaign now, he has long had a well-established record of antisemitic remarks, violent rhetoric, and bigoted views.
These are just some of the stories that have come out in the last few months:
- In a church speech in 2022, Robinson pointed to his crotch and admonished women to ‘get this under control.’ He also suggested women should not have access to birth control and said they shouldn’t have sex until they wanted to have a baby.
- While warning of a socialist takeover in the United States, Robinson, who says most Democrats are socialists, told a church group in June that “some folks need killing.”
- Former workers at porn shops in the Greensboro area told reporters that Robinson visited their stores up to five times a week in the 1990s and early 2000s.
- A month after seeking a softer tone on abortion to appeal to a wider electorate, Robinson told a supporter that ‘there’s no reason why an abortion should happen ever.’
There was no call for him to drop out after any of these stories were published.
And there is no shortage of clips of Republicans, including Lassiter, embracing Robinson and singing his praises even as these stories became known.
In a speech in Greensboro this year, Trump said Robinson was “Martin Luther King [Jr.] on steroids.”
“I told that to Mark. I said, I think you’re better than Martin Luther King. I think you are Martin Luther King times two,” Trump said.
“We have to cherish Mark Robinson,” Trump said at another appearance.
“He’s like a fine wine. He’s an outstanding person,” Trump added.
“I’ve gotten to know him so well.”
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