Mark Robinson, Republican nominee for governor of North Carolina, isn't giving in to intense pressure to drop out of the North Carolina race following CNN's explosive report on Thursday that he made inflammatory and sexually explicit comments on a pornography website's message board.
CNN reports that Robinson made these comments more than a decade ago, at one point referring to himself as a "black NAZI!" and commenting that "some people needed to be slaves."
WRAL reports that sources close to the situation say Robinson is indeed facing demands from members of his own party to drop out of the race, but so far has refused to do so while denying CNN's extensive report. He posted a preemptive video on social media earlier Thursday in which he called the allegations "outrageous lies" and said he plans to remain in the race against the Democratic nominee, Josh Stein, who is currently North Carolina's attorney general.
"They want to focus on salacious tabloid lies," he said. "We're not going to let them do that. We are staying in this race. We are in it to win it."
According to the CNN report, Robinson's comments were made between 2008 and 2012 on the pornography site "Nude Africa" under the username minisoldr, a name he frequently used online. The comments, which are graphic, include Robinson saying he liked transgender pornography -- despite his public stance on transgender rights. Robinson has said he thinks transgender women should be arrested for using women's restrooms.
"I like watching tranny on girl porn! That's f*cking hot!" one of his comments read, according to the report. "It takes the man out while leaving the man in! And yeah I'm a 'perv' too!"
During an interview with CNN on Thursday, Robinson stressed he had no plans to drop out of the race.
"We are not getting out of this race. There are people who are counting on us to win this race," he said.
