North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson, the Republican candidate for governor, hinted at legal action against fake news CNN during a campaign stop, declaring his intention to hold the network accountable for the blatant smear campaign aimed at derailing his gubernatorial bid.
This follows the release of a highly controversial CNN report that alleges Robinson made offensive comments between 2008 and 2012 on a pornographic website.
The CNN article, which surfaced last month, accuses Robinson of referring to himself as a “black NAZI” and expressing support for reinstating slavery during posts on the website “Nude Africa.”
Four key members of Robinson’s campaign, including senior adviser Conrad Pogorzelski III, campaign manager Chris Rodriguez, and finance director Heather Whillier, announced their resignation.
Robinson wasted no time responding, releasing a fiery video denouncing the CNN report as a smear campaign allegedly orchestrated by his Democrat opponent, Attorney General Josh Stein.
“I wanted to take a minute to address the latest outrageous lies coming from my opponent’s dishonest campaign,” he wrote.
“The news media is at it again. My opponent is at it again. You all have seen the half-truths and outright lies of Josh Stein on these ads over and over again. And now a story leaked by him to CNN is appearing now,” said Robinson.
“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.”
“Our opponents are desperate to shift the focus here from the substantive issues and focus on what you are concerned with to salacious tabloid trash. We cannot allow that to happen. And folks, we’ve seen this type of stuff in the past as well. Clarence Thomas famously once said he was the victim of a high-tech lynching.”
“Well, it looks like Mark Robinson is too, by a man who refuses to stand on stage and debate me about the real issues that face you. Instead, they want to focus on salacious tabloid lies.”
Robinson has denied the report and hired the Binnall Law Group, headed by former Donald Trump attorney Jesse Binnall, to conduct an investigation.
In his speech at Bum’s Restaurant on Monday, Robinson took aim at CNN, accusing the network of election interference.
“Tomorrow, we’re going to take CNN to task for what they’ve done to me. Time for someone to stand up to these unscrupulous reporters,” Robinson announced to the packed room.
“I’ve been completely transparent about my life. I wrote a book telling folks about the bad experiences and mistakes I’ve made. When reporters asked me about what I actually said and wrote, I told them, sometimes to their face, “Yeah, I said it, and if you don’t like it, too bad.” They can’t say the same. Remember Russia, Russia, Russia? Remember the Hunter Biden laptop and how they pushed that to the background until after the election? That news organization has a funny way of being dishonest. We’re going to take them to task for pure election interference. That’s exactly what this is,” he added.
Video via EastCoastAVM/Robert Graham:
