Mark Robinson’s (R) North Carolina gubernatorial bid took another hit this weekend when four top staffers resigned from his campaign in the wake of an explosive CNN report that identified him as the owner of an account on an online pornographic message board that featured racist and sexually explicit posts.
The four staff members resigned on Sunday, just three days after the report and Mark Robinson’s refusal to drop from the race.
“Conrad Pogorzelski III, Robinson’s general consultant and senior adviser; campaign manager Chris Rodriguez; finance director Heather Whillier; and deputy campaign manager Jason Rizk all stepped down just weeks before the election, according to a press release from Robinson’s campaign,” reported Politico.
The campaign said in a press release that “an announcement of new incoming staff members will be forthcoming from the campaign soon.”
“I appreciate the efforts of these team members who have made the difficult choice to step away from the campaign, and I wish them well in their future endeavors,” Robinson said in the statement, adding that his campaign “will continue to focus on the substantive issues at stake in this election.”
Robinson has refused to back out of the race and even said in a statement that polls have “consistently underestimated Republican support” in North Carolina.
“Guys, the news media is at it again. My opponent is at it again. You’ve all seen the half-truths and outright lies of Josh Stein on these ads over and over again. Now, a story, leaked by him to CNN, is appearing now,” he said.
“Let me reassure you, the things that you will see in that story, those are not the words of Mark Robinson. You know my words. You know my character and you know that I have been completely transparent in this race and before,” he added.
In the report from CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck, Robinson was identified as the owner of the account named “minisoldr” on the pornographic website Nude Africa. Per Breitbart News:
On message boards between 2008 and 2012 on Nude Africa, “minisoldr” posted sexually themed messages, including a liking for transgender porn and the memory of peeping on a women’s locker room.
“I like watching tranny on girl porn! That’s f*cking hot! It takes the man out while leaving the man in!” minisoldr wrote on one occasion. “And yeah I’m a ‘perv’ too!”
The account user, who listed his full name as Mark Robinson, also reminisced about watching women shower in a public gym when he was 14 years old.
Republicans have increasingly been calling for Mark Robinson to drop from the race.
“I think what’s going to happen here is he deserves the chance to defend himself, Mark Robinson. The charges are beyond unnerving,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). “If they’re true, he is unfit to serve for office. If they’re not true, he’s got the best suit in the history of the country for libel. He claims they were artificially created and that CNN passed it along to be true. Has NBC confirmed this?”