Donald Trump is facing calls from both his allies and his own campaign to withdraw his support for scandal-plagued North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson, according to four people familiar with the discussions.
However, there are no plans yet to formally force the former president to step down.
On Thursday, CNN reported that Robinson, currently the state’s lieutenant governor, posted a series of offensive comments on the message board of a pornography website called “Nude Africa,” including calling himself a “black NAZI!”, saying he liked to watch “tranny” porn and revealing that he spied on women in public gyms when he was 14. The comments were reportedly posted between 2008 and 2012, before Robinson was lieutenant governor.
In a statement, the Trump campaign did not directly address the underlying reporting about Robinson, whom the former president endorsed in March and called “Martin Luther King on steroids.”
“President Trump’s campaign is focused on winning the White House and saving the country,” said Karoline Leavitt, a Trump campaign spokeswoman. “North Carolina is a critical part of that plan. We are confident that when voters compare Trump’s record of a strong economy, low inflation, a secure border and safe streets with the Biden-Harris failure, President Trump will win the Tarheel State again.”
On Friday morning, she told NBC News that reports that Trump was considering withdrawing his endorsement were “false.”
Some advisers within Trump’s campaign have privately urged him to withdraw his endorsement of Robinson, but so far those pleas have fallen on deaf ears, said a campaign aide who, like others in this piece, spoke on the condition of anonymity and could speak freely about the matter.
In addition, Republican members of North Carolina’s congressional delegation, including Sens. Ted Budd and Thom Tillis, and Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley, who is from North Carolina, planned to secretly urge Trump to withdraw his support for Robinson, according to a person familiar with the conversations.
When asked for comment for this story, Budd’s office sent a statement, which it released Thursday, in which the senator called the alleged comments “disgusting.”
“Mark Robinson says they’re not his. He has to prove that to the voters,” Budd said.
A spokesman for Tillis did not respond to a request for comment.
A person close to the Trump campaign who was involved in the discussions surrounding Robinson said Trump has gone back and forth on the issue and has been in close contact with Whatley, who also did not respond to a request for comment.
But if Trump ultimately retracts his endorsement, it would be a break from his past. He rarely publicly retracts his endorsements, long believing that doing so makes him look weak — which is one reason he is unlikely to formally retract his endorsement of Robinson.
“The problem is, while he may think this might be a smart move — and I don’t know if he does — there’s no way he’s going to endanger the base, who are going to be furious,” a former senior Trump administration official said.
The person said Trump might try to move on by not retracting his endorsement but instead issuing a statement “denying the actions.”
Robinson will not attend Trump’s rally scheduled for Saturday in Wilmington, North Carolina, although a source said he has attended previous Trump rallies in the state.
Amid much uproar Thursday afternoon before CNN was set to publish the story, Robinson released a video prior to the news in which he stated that the words the network was preparing to report were not his.
“You know my words, you know my character, and you know I’ve been completely transparent in this race. Clarence Thomas once said he was the victim of a high-tech lynching. Well, it looks like Mark Robinson is,” he said, comparing himself to the chief justice, who was accused of sexual harassment during his confirmation hearings in 1991.
The CNN story broke on the last day for a candidate to drop out of the race, meaning that even as the scandal likely escalates, Robinson remains the Republican nominee for governor in the key swing state.
“Robinson could hurt Trump, but it’s too late to fall now, and if Trump was going to have an opinion, he should have done it before the clock struck 12 last night,” said one veteran Senate Republican strategist. “The ads are going to be brutal.”
The Republican Governors Association, which has only two competitive races this election cycle, including Robinson’s, did not respond to requests for comment.
The political implications of Robinson’s past comments could be particularly severe for Trump, as North Carolina is one of seven key swing states on the presidential election map.
Recent polls have put Trump in a statistical dead heat against Vice President Kamala Harris in the state, at about 48%. That’s better than Robinson, who is polling in the low 40s versus Democrat Josh Stein, who has consistently had a lead in the race.
Even before Robinson’s alleged message board comments came to light, he was seen as an underdog in his own race and a potential liability for Trump because of previous controversial remarks. He called gay marriage “evil,” said women who have abortions aren’t “responsible enough to keep their skirts down” and mocked victims of school shootings.
Robinson has also been critical of the transgender community. His past comments came under renewed scrutiny following Thursday’s report, which detailed comments Robinson allegedly made on the porn message board, namely that he likes to “watch tranny on girl porn!”
Robinson has called for the arrest of transgender people who use the toilet.
“If you’re a man on a Friday night and you suddenly feel like a woman on a Saturday night and you want to go to the ladies’ room at the mall, you’re going to be arrested — or whatever we have to do with you,” he said in February.
Robinson isn’t the only controversial candidate Trump has backed.
In 2017, Trump supported the unsuccessful candidacy of Roy Moore for the Alabama Senate. Moore was accused of sexual misconduct with young girls.
During the 2022 midterm elections, Trump supported the failed re-election campaign of North Carolina Congresswoman Madison Cawthorn after the new lawmaker was embroiled in several scandals, including carrying a loaded gun into an airport, being scrutinized by ethics watchdogs over suspicions of possible insider trading involving a meme cryptocurrency, and calling the president of Ukraine a “thug” amid the Russian invasion, among other things.
Trump also endorsed Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker in 2022, even after a report revealed that the outspoken anti-abortion candidate paid for a woman’s abortion in 2009.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
