Mark Robinson, the Republican candidate for North Carolina governor and current lieutenant governor, has been making extreme and embarrassing comments on pornographic forums for years, according to a new report from CNN on Thursday. While Robinson denied that the comments were actually his, and Gizmodo couldn’t independently confirm their accuracy, CNN provided some compelling evidence, including the fact that Robinson apparently used his real, full name.
The controversial comments were made between 2008 and 2012 under the username “minisoldr” on a website called “Nude Africa,” which has the aesthetic of a ’90s Geocities website. CNN (CNN) noted that Robinson has used the name “minisoldr” elsewhere online. The report points to accounts sharing the name on YouTube, X and Pinterest.
So what kind of comments did Robinson allegedly make? The lieutenant governor appeared to express a desire to own slaves, called himself a “black Nazi” and opposed a monument to civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., writing: “Go get that fucking communist bastard.” Get off the National Mall!
According to CNN, Robinson previously called LGBTQ people “dirty” in 2023, but he also appeared to have repeatedly used anti-gay slurs and expressed an interest in transgender pornography in his comments.
“I love watching trans people on girl porn! It’s so fucking hot! It takes people out but keeps people in!” Robinson allegedly wrote. “Yes, I am a ‘pervert’ too!”
It’s unclear whether CNN chose to censor the word “fucking” or whether that was how it was originally written. Robinson seemed to put scare quotes around the word “pervert” in his post about trans people, making things even more confusing.
The site Robinson was reviewing allegedly boasts that it has an archive of all nude Africans dating back to 1998, which makes a lot of sense when you look at the site’s visual style. It’s a sparse website with outdated fonts and a weird layout. The whole atmosphere is full of 1990s internet fashion. However, Robinson once again denied that comments made on the porn site between 2008 and 2012 were his.
“This is not who we are. These are not our words. It’s not who I am,” Robinson said, according to CNN, though it’s unclear why he said “we” and “our” when talking about himself. “.
There have been calls for Robinson to drop out of the gubernatorial race, likely in large part because he trails Democratic challenger North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein in many polls. According to FiveThirtyEight, Robinson trails Stein by double digits in most polls. But Robinson told CNN in a segment that aired Thursday that he has no plans to quit.
ROBINSON: We’re not withdrawing from this campaign. pic.twitter.com/677dQw4fY2
— Acyn (@Acyn) September 19, 2024
Robinson was a controversial candidate from the start, saying he wanted to return to a time before women had the right to vote. Robinson also shared extreme anti-Semitic views, quoted Adolf Hitler, and mildly denied the Holocaust. According to People magazine, he later expressed some regret over the comments and wrote an unapologetic note in his memoir, saying “it did turn out to be wrong. I knew the truth of what I was trying to say, but I should Choose different words.
Robinson also supports a total ban on abortion, although he apologized for paying for his wife’s abortion in the 1980s. Republican presidential candidate and convicted felon Donald Trump has previously praised Robinson, telling a rally in March that he was “Martin Luther King Jr. on steroids,” according to footage from the event. “Twice as good as Martin Luther King.”
It’s unclear whether this latest controversy will lead to Robinson dropping out of school. But it would be crazy if this was the thing that did it. Robinson’s previous controversies have been equally wild.
