CNN Publishes Shocking Old Comments by Mark Robinson

North Carolina gubernatorial nominee Mark Robinson has been a magnet for controversy since announcing his bid for the state’s highest office. But the patience of the state political scene is being tested following the release of a damaging news report.

On Thursday, CNN reported that Robinson made dozens of incendiary comments on the message board of a pornography site prior to his time in politics. Among the comments include calling himself a “Black Nazi” as well as supporting a return of slavery in the US

In a video released on social media prior to the story’s release, Robinson denounced the accusation as “salacious, tabloid trash” and vowed to stay in the race. “Let me reassure you. “The things that you will see in that story, those are not the words of Mark Robinson,” he said. “You know my words, you know my character and you know that I have been completely transparent in this race and before.”

The candidate even invoked the words of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas from his 1991 Senate confirmation hearing, suggesting he was the target of a politically-motivated campaign. “Clarence Thomas famously once said he was the victim of a high-tech lynching. Well, it looks like Mark Robinson is, too,” he said.

Before the article even came out, the Carolina Journal reported that Robinson’s staff, as well as members of Donald Trump’s campaign had been pressing the lieutenant governor to drop his bid for governor as the CNN report loomed. Michael Lonergan, a Robinson spokesman, told the National Review that it’s “complete fiction” that he will drop out from the race.

Robinson has been trailing behind his Democratic opponent Josh Stein, the North Carolina attorney general, in recent weeks. A Quinnipiac University poll from earlier this month had Stein leading Robinson 51- 41 percent among likely voters. Robinson appeared alongside Trump at a rally ahead of the state primary in March. At that event, Trump described the lieutenant governor as “Martin Luther King on steroids.”

Robinson has a long history of homophobic and misogynistic remarks, as well as troubling comments about the Holocaust. Earlier this month, Robinson was in the news after The Assembly, a local site, reported that the lieutenant governor frequented a Greensboro porn shop in the 1990s and early 2000s. The outlet spoke to several former employees of the establishment who allege that Robinson would visit the store as often as five times a week to watch videos. A spokesman for Robinson campaign has denied the denunciation in the article.