The Republican candidate for governor of North Carolina, the African-American Mark Robinson, defined himself as a “black Nazi” and expressed his support for the return of slavery in the United States in a series of messages published ten years ago on a pornographic website and which were revealed this Thursday by the American television channel CNN.
Following the publication of the investigation, Robinson denied being the author of the messages and assured that he would remain in the electoral race in North Carolina, a decisive state for the American elections on November 5.
CNN has compiled a series of posts allegedly written by Robinson on a discussion board on a pornographic website. Naked Africa between 2008 and 2012, before entering politics and taking up his current position as Lieutenant Governor of the State of North Carolina.
Many of his comments were sexual in nature, although there were also messages in which he described himself as a “black Nazi” and advocated the restoration of slavery. Although the real reason for the controversy lies in the fact that their opinions in this sexual forum diverge from their political positions on key issues for the upcoming elections such as abortion or others such as trans rights.
Robinson, who has publicly opposed trans rights and gone so far as to say that trans women should be arrested for using women’s restrooms, revealed on the forum that he enjoys watching pornographic content of transgender women. The Republican candidate, who has used the argument as a “defense of women,” commented in the op-ed about how he used to spy on women in public gym showers when he was 14.
Other comments refer to issues such as abortion, which he has opposed since his sixth week as a candidate but which he supported in posts written in 2010. Mark Robinson, who went so far as to call him a “fucking communist” to Martin Luther King on the forum, even wrote in another comment: “I’m not in the Ku Kux Klan. They don’t let black people in. If I was a KKK member, they would have called me Martin Lucifer Koon!”
According to CNN, Robinson used the same username and email address that he used on other platforms and social networks such as Pinterest, YouTube or Disqus.
The Republican candidate and current lieutenant governor anticipated the report last Thursday and released a video in which he denied everything and declared that he would continue the race for governor of the state: “Let me assure you that the things that you will see in this article are not the words of Mark Robinson.
Interviewed by CNN on Thursday, Robinson repeatedly denied making the comments in Naked Africa and called the information “tabloid trash,” despite evidence linking him to the username on various social media and platforms.
Robinson has been the subject of several controversies in the past for controversial statements and has received strong support from former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has repeatedly called him “Martin Luther King on steroids” because of his skin color and weight.
Indeed, it didn’t take long for Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign to share photographs of Robinson and Trump together, including one showing the two of them posing, or a video of Trump calling Robinson “one of the great leaders of our country” or declaring that he is “better than Martin Luther King.”
North Carolina’s is one of the state’s tightest races, and Robinson will face Democrat Josh Stein, the state’s current attorney general.
Additionally, North Carolina is one of the most crucial states ahead of the November presidential election and is among those that Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris is seeking to wrest from Trump, who narrowly won there in 2020.
