(NewsNation) — North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, a Republican candidate for governor, called reports alleging he made inflammatory comments about slavery and race on a porn site message board “salacious tabloid trash.”
Robinson, whom former President Donald Trump has called “Martin Luther King on steroids,” faced calls to drop out of the governor’s race following reports that he called himself a Nazi and made provocative comments about slavery on a pornography website’s message board over a decade ago.
“Well, guys, the news media is at it again. My opponent is at it again,” Robinson said in a post on his X page. “Our opponents are desperate to shift the focus from the substantive issues … to salacious tabloid trash.”
CNN first reported Thursday that Robinson made a series of inflammatory comments on a porn site’s message board more than 10 years ago, referring to himself as a “black NAZI!” He also, according to CNN, “expressed support for reinstating slavery.”
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Later Thursday, Politico reported that an email address belonging to Robinson was registered on Ashley Madison, the dating website for married people. An adviser to Robinson confirmed the address belonged to the lieutenant governor, who is married, according to Politico.
“The things that you will see in that story, those are not the words of Mark Robinson,” Robinson continued in his X post. “You know my words. You know my character. And you know that I have been completely transparent in this race and before.”
In response to questions from NewsNation local affiliate WNCN posed before the CNN report, Robinson spokesperson Mike Lonergan wrote in an email, “Where on earth did you hear this absurd nonsense? Is the press just making stuff up out of whole cloth now?”
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But the reports drew more than media criticism.
Robinson is accused of making disparaging comments about Martin Luther King Jr. in a series of posts from 2011.
Martin Luther King III weighed in Thursday, saying, in part, “We must work to ensure that Mark Robinson gets nowhere near the governor’s office.”
Robinson’s alleged comments are at odds with public praise from Trump, who has lauded the lieutenant governor as a civil rights icon and called him, “Martin Luther King Jr. on steroids.”
“I told that to Mark. I said, ‘I think you’re better than Martin Luther King. I think you are Martin Luther King times two,'” Trump said at a March rally in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Robinson is facing Democrat Josh Stein, North Carolina’s attorney general, in the race for the governorship. The state will begin mailing ballots to military personnel and North Carolinians living overseas Friday.
In a statement, Stein’s campaign said, “North Carolinians already know Mark Robinson is completely unfit to be governor.”
Stein has been a heavy favorite to win the race. An average of polls taken in the past week gives Stein an 11-point lead, 49% to 38%.
WNCN and The Hill contributed to this report.