WASHINGTON — GOP gubernatorial nominee Mark Robinson says he has “backed away” from former President Donald Trump so the North Carolina Republican’s porn web site scandal doesn’t drag Trump down politically within the state forward of the November election.
In a Wednesday interview with conservative radio host and former Trump administration official Sebastian Gorka, Robinson, whose marketing campaign has been falling aside after a CNN report unearthed disturbing feedback he apparently made on a porn web site discussion board, mentioned he’s dealing with “a whole lot of fireplace” and doesn’t need to be a legal responsibility for Trump.
“So we have now backed away from the president to offer him his house to run his race, whereas we have now house to run our race,” mentioned Robinson, who’s at present the state’s lieutenant governor. “Now we have chosen to drag ourselves again from President Trump.”
Right here’s a video clip of Robinson on Gorka’s present, which was first flagged by Media Issues for America, a progressive media monitoring group.
North Carolina is a key swing state for profitable the presidency. Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and Trump stay extremely shut there, per polling aggregator FiveThirtyEight. And there’s definitely worry amongst North Carolina Republicans that Robinson might damage all of their possibilities.
State and nationwide GOP officers have been scrambling to distance themselves from Robinson after final week’s bombshell report, which laid out proof of him figuring out as a “Black Nazi,” supporting slavery, describing being sexually aroused by spying on women in public showers, and calling himself “a perv” who likes porn with transgender individuals in it — a pointy distinction to his public transphobic rhetoric calling for trans girls to be arrested for utilizing girls’s bogs.
For the reason that story got here out, Robinson’s marketing campaign and authorities workers have resigned en masse, the Republican Governors Affiliation has pulled advert funding for his marketing campaign and native GOP officers have been deleting photos and canceling events that hyperlink them to him.
Robinson has referred to as the report “false lies” and vowed to sue CNN, however thus far, he hasn’t been capable of refute the proof introduced within the story. He’s additionally advised that perhaps these feedback actually had been his.
Hilariously, Trump, who has been a powerful ally of Robinson’s for years, and vice versa, has been pretending to not know something concerning the North Carolina Republican’s very public porn web site scandal.
Requested about it Thursday by a reporter, Trump mentioned solely, “I don’t know the state of affairs.”
Robinson advised in any other case in his Wednesday interview: “We’ve spoken to him, had nice conversations with him,” he instructed Gorka. “However we have now chosen to [distance ourselves] as a result of we need to make it possible for he wins this state.”
Trump might attempt to ignore Robinson now, however the actuality is the 2 have an extended and public file of sharing levels and heaping reward on one another. In truth, the North Carolina Republican’s total political profession has been modeled after Trump’s.
Trump beforehand hailed Robinson, who has an extended file of creating sexist, racist, Islamophobic and in any other case disgusting feedback, as “Martin Luther King on steroids.” He’s featured Robinson in a campaign ad. He’s described Robinson as “a star,” ”outstanding” and somebody who’s “going to go down as one of many nice leaders in our nation.”
At a September 2022 campaign event, Trump referred to as Robinson “one of many hottest politicians in the USA of America” and “a pal of mine.”
Trump additionally gave the North Carolina Republican his speaking slot on the 2024 RNC conference, the place Robinson referred to as Trump “the Braveheart of our time.”
