Mark Robinson, the Republican candidate for governor of North Carolina and the state’s current lieutenant governor, spent years making extreme and embarrassing comments on a pornography forum, according to a new report from CNN on Thursday. And while Robinson denies that the comments are actually his and Gizmodo can’t independently confirm their accuracy, CNN provides compelling evidence, including that Robinson apparently used his real, full name.
The controversial comments were made under the username “minisoldr” from 2008 to 2012 on a site called Nude Africa, which has the aesthetic of a 1990s Geocities site. CNN notes that Robinson has used the name minisoldr elsewhere on the internet. The report mentions accounts on YouTube, X and Pinterest that share the same name.
So what kind of comments would Robinson have made? The lieutenant governor appears to express his desire to own slaves, calls himself a “black Nazi,” and rails against the installation of a monument to civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., writing, “Get that Communist bastard off the National Mall!”
Robinson, who previously called LGBTQ people “filth” in 2023, also appeared to repeatedly use anti-gay slurs and expressed an interest in trans pornography in the comments, according to CNN.
“I love watching porn movies with girls and transsexuals! It’s really hot! It brings the man out while keeping him in!” Robinson reportedly wrote. “And yes, I’m a ‘pervert’ too!”
It is not yet clear whether CNN chose to censor the word “whore” or whether that is how it was originally written. The situation is further confused by Robinson’s apparent use of quotation marks around the word “pervert” in his post about transgender people.
The site Robinson allegedly posted comments on boasts of having all of Nude Africa’s archives dating back to 1998, which makes perfect sense when you look at the site’s visual style. It’s a clean site with dated fonts and a weird layout. The overall vibe is 1990s web chic. But, again, Robinson denies that the comments made on the porn site from 2008 to 2012 are his.
“That’s not us. Those are not our words. And that’s not something that characterizes me,” Robinson said, according to CNN, although it’s unclear why he uses “we” and “our” when referring to himself.
Some have called for Robinson to drop out of his gubernatorial race, perhaps in large part because he is trailing his Democratic opponent, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, in many polls. Robinson is trailing Stein by double digits in most polls, according to FiveThirtyEight. But Robinson told CNN in a segment that aired Thursday that he has no plans to drop out.
Robinson was a controversial candidate from the start, suggesting he would like to return to a time when women did not have the right to vote. Robinson also shared extremely anti-Semitic views, quoting Adolf Hitler and engaging in mild Holocaust denial. He later expressed some regret over the comments, writing a non-apology in his memoir, according to People magazine, saying, “It was poorly said. I knew the truth of what I was trying to say, but I should have chosen different words.”
Robinson also supports a total ban on abortion, though he has apologized for paying for his wife’s abortion in the 1980s. Republican presidential candidate and convicted felon Donald Trump has previously celebrated Robinson, declaring at a rally in March that he was “Martin Luther King on steroids” and “Martin Luther King times two,” according to footage from the event.
It’s unclear whether this latest controversy will push Robinson to quit. But it would be pretty crazy if it did. It’s not like Robinson’s previous controversies were any less crazy.
