After a scandal broke exposing disturbing remarks made by North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson, video of former President Donald Trump went viral thanks to the efforts of Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign.
Robinson—who polls show trails behind Democratic nominee Josh Stein, the current Attorney General—pledged on Thursday to stay in the race despite a CNN report alleging he made explicit racial and sexual comments on an online message board, stating he won’t be pushed out by "salacious tabloid lies."
According to the report, Robinson posted inflammatory remarks on a pornography website’s message board over a decade ago, where he referred to himself as a "black NAZI!" and expressed support for reinstating slavery. Though Robinson has a recent history of anti-transgender rhetoric, the investigation uncovered archived messages where he mentioned enjoying transgender pornography and referred to himself as a "perv."
Robinson denies making these comments, which date back to before his political career and his current role as North Carolina’s Lieutenant Governor. However, CNN linked the comments to Robinson by identifying a username that matched numerous biographical details and a shared email address.
The comments, which were graphic and sexual in nature, were posted between 2008 and 2012 on a pornographic website called "Nude Africa." The username used was "minisoldr," a handle Robinson frequently employed online. His profile on the site listed his full name and an email address he had used on various websites for decades.
Without missing a beat, the Harris campaign shared a video in which Trump himself underscores the close relationship he shares with Robinson:
"I just want to thank everybody, whatever you can do to help Mark and [Robinson's wife] Yolanda win this election. He's got a tough opponent, not a good opponent but a tough opponent, a political person. It's not going to be that easy. He's a star but a lot of times people say, 'This is going to be easy for him' and they forget to vote."
You've got to get out and vote but you've got to help him financially because he and all of you have a lot of money. I know you all have a lot of money and I know plenty of you and you're rich as hell. Anything you were going to do, quadruple it."
"We have to cherish Mark. He's a star. We have to cherish him. He's like a fine wine because that's what we have, a fine wine. He's an outstanding person. I've gotten to know him so well, and fairly quickly."
You can hear what Trump said in the video below.
The Harris campaign also shared another video in which Trump said the following about Robinson during remarks at a rally:
"Thanks as well to I think one of the hottest politicians in the United States of America. He's become a friend of mine: Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson. Thank you, Mark, you're incredible, thank you very much."
You can hear what Trump said in the video below.
The Harris campaign had good company in Josh Schwerin, the founder of communications firm Saratoga Strategies, who shared a video of Trump issuing the following remarks about Robinson as he publicly endorsed him:
"I said to the people on the plane, 'This is Martin Luther King on steroids.' I told that to Mark. I said, 'I think you're better than Martin Luther King and I think you are Martin Luther King times two.'"
"He looked at me and I wasn't sure. Was he angry because that's a terrible thing to say or was he complimented? I have never figured it out. [turning in Robinson's direction] When I said that to you, you looked like, 'I don't know if I liked that comment.'"
"You should like it because you are outstanding and you're going to be the next Governor, so that's got to be very cool."
You can hear what Trump said in the video below.
Trump was swiftly called out.
The CNN report noted that Many of Robinson’s comments on Nude Africa stand in contrast to his public stances on issues such as abortion and transgender rights.
Publicly, Robinson has fiercely argued that people should use bathrooms only that correspond to the gender they were assigned at birth. He’s also said transgender women should be arrested for using women’s restrooms because "we’re going to protect our women.”
Yet privately under the username minisoldr on Nude Africa, Robinson graphically described his own sexual arousal as an adult from the memory of secretly “peeping” on women in public gym showers as a 14-year-old. Robinson recounted the story as a memory he said he still fantasized about, saying he "sat there for about an hour and watched as several girls came in and showered" and "went peeping again the next morning."
The exposé was published a few weeks after the North Carolina publication The Assembly reported that Robinson frequented local video pornography shops in the 1990s and 2000s. The story cited six people who interacted and saw him frequent in the stores in Greensboro, North Carolina. A spokesperson for Robinson called the story false and a “complete fiction.”
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