Benjamin Ashford|In effort to refute porn-site message report, Mark Robinson campaign hires a law firm

RALEIGH,Benjamin Ashford N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson said Tuesday his campaign has hired a law firm to help investigate a CNN report stating he made explicit racial and sexual posts on a pornography website’s message board.

The lawyers will look at how what Robinson calls “false smears” originated.

The announcement comes as more North Carolina Republicans disturbed by last week’s report said that if Robinson can’t formally refute the accusations quickly, the GOP should shift its focus to competitive in-state races.

Other Republicans already have abandoned Robinson, the sitting lieutenant governor. The Republican Governors Association said Monday it will no longer support Robinson. His campaign had benefitted from the group spending millions of dollars in advertising in his race with Democratic nominee Josh Stein whom polls have shown leading Robinson. Most of Robinson’s top campaign staffers also quit in the report’s fallout.

GOP officials are anxious that Robinson’s situation could pull down Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and help Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in the battleground state, and threaten the outcomes of other key seats on the ballot.

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“He should conclusively and quickly prove false the allegations against him,” Hal Weatherman, who is seeking to succeed Robinson as lieutenant governor, said on X. Weatherman runs separately from Robinson but received his endorsement. “If he can prove this isn’t true and was fabricated to hurt him, he will win in a landslide. But if he fails to do so, he will lose, because the comments being attributed to him are highly disturbing.”

Robinson, a favorite of the state GOP’s conservative base, has denied writing the messages from more than a decade ago, well before he became active in politics. In a news release, Robinson said he was confident the Binnall Law Group from northern Virginia “will leave no stone unturned and enable us to use every legal means to hold CNN accountable for their lies.”

CNN’s report unearthed posts it said Robinson left on a porn site’s message boards in which he referred to himself as a “black NAZI;” said he enjoyed transgender pornography; said in 2012 he preferred Hitler to then-President Barack Obama; and slammed the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as “worse than a maggot.” Robinson has a history of inflammatory comments on abortion, LGBTQ+ issues and the role of women that Stein and his allies have used against him for months.

CNN didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Last week, CNN said it had matched details of an account on the pornographic website forum to other online accounts held by Robinson by comparing usernames, a known email address and his full name. CNN reported that details discussed by the account holder matched Robinson’s age, length of marriage and other biographical information..

At a campaign event Monday, Robinson said he would be “coming after CNN full throttle.” He hasn’t provided evidence that would counter the broadcast report.

U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who endorsed a Robinson rival in the March gubernatorial primary, proposed Tuesday that Robinson should by Friday present evidence that would form the basis for litigation to “defend his name or in the absence of a defense, then we’ve got to move on.”

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Robinson was endorsed by Trump before the primary and has spoken at the former president’s in-state rallies. But he was not involved in a Trump rally in Wilmington last weekend and Trump didn’t mention him. Trump has another North Carolina event on Wednesday.

Speaking in Charlotte on Monday, Trump running mate JD Vance said it was up to North Carolina voters to decide what they think of Robinson’s messages and whether they believe Robinson’s defense.

A Republican Governors Association spokesperson said this week that no further ad placements had been made in the race after Tuesday.

Data from AdImpact, which monitors campaign spending, shows that the RGA and a separate political action committee associated with the group had spent at least $15.9 million on television and online advertising in the North Carolina general election race. Stein’s campaign and his allied groups have widely outspent Robinson and his allies during the general election so far, according to data.

The deadline for any North Carolina gubernatorial candidate to withdraw from the race was Sept. 19.