Inside the Mark Robinson debacle: Panic, blame and pressure on Trump

CHARLOTTE — North Carolina Republicans were in a panic last week as CNN prepared to drop a devastating story about their nominee for governor, Mark Robinson. Some sought help from the man who had supercharged Robinsonâ€s candidacy: Donald Trump.

A member of Robinsonâ€s own team asked the Trump campaign for help persuading their boss to drop out, according to a Trump ally with knowledge of the exchange. A consultant close to state Senate President Phil Berger (R) called as well, according to the ally and another Republican with knowledge of the conversation, asking whether Trump would personally urge Robinson to exit the race. Robinson had indicated that he might listen to Trump, two other people familiar with the matter said.

The response from Trumpworld: And then what? Overseas and military ballots were due to be sent out the following day, Sept. 20. It was too late to remove Robinsonâ€s name from the ballot. And who did they have lined up to replace him who would campaign on this message: Cast your vote for Mark Robinson, and that vote will count for me?

“It was dead silence,� said the Trump ally, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. “Nobody was going to be willing to do that.�

CNN upended the governorâ€s race nine days ago with new reporting tying Robinson to an old account on an obscure online porn forum. The user called himself a “black NAZI,â€� praised Adolf Hitlerâ€s book “Mein Kampf,â€� expressed support for bringing back slavery and described supposed extramarital sexual exploits in graphic detail. Robinson vehemently denied that the posts were his, but the allegations were a crushing blow to his campaign against Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein.

Robinson has pressed on through the scandal so far, which now threatens GOP prospects up and down the ballot in a critical battleground state. Critics say he is a problem of the partyâ€s own making — a charismatic outsider whom Republicans in North Carolina and beyond elevated despite a long record of inflammatory comments made in full public view. He was beloved by the base and is Black — an enticing prospect for a party not known for its diversity, some Republicans said.

Top Republicans had long championed him or enabled him. Trump promised to endorse Robinson early in the primary. National party leaders declined to intervene against him. GOP voters delivered a landslide primary win. Finally, Trump shrugged off a chance to condemn Robinson even after the porn account scandal, telling reporters Thursday, “I donâ€t know the situation.â€�

Robinson continues to tie himself to the Republican presidential nominee, saying in a statement that “President Trump and myself are barnstorming North Carolina taking the problems of our state seriously.â€� He dismissed other Republicans†criticism, adding, “Thereâ€s too much at stake in this election for the voters to worry about mindless chatter from defeated politicians from yesteryear.â€�

Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt made no mention of Robinson in a statement for this report. “Voters in North Carolina are going to reelect President Trump,â€� she said, citing his campaignâ€s economic and national security themes.

Trumpâ€s aides never took the pleas to help force Robinson out to the former president. They didnâ€t have to. “He was like, ‘Iâ€m not getting in the middle of that,â€â€� the Trump ally said.

This was not a failure to vet their candidate, critics said. It was a conscious decision to look away.

“The leaders of the state Republican Party did turn a blind eye to his very apparent weaknesses because he brought a new diverse and dynamic voice to the party,� said Republican Pat McCrory, a former North Carolina governor.

‘The hottest guy in politicsâ€

Robinsonâ€s fast-track journey to the GOP nomination solidified 15 months ago with an off-the-cuff comment from Trump.

The former president was in Greensboro, N.C., to deliver the keynote speech at the state Republican convention. Trump met with state party luminaries backstage, but Robinson stood out. “They hit it off,� recalled the Trump ally.

“Iâ€m going to endorse Mark,â€� Trump said from the lectern that evening, shocking his own team as much as the rest of the room. “But Iâ€m not going to tell you about it tonight, okay? Weâ€ll save it for another time. But you can count on it, Mark. Congratulations. Great job.â€�

The comments terrified those who knew that Robinson carried baggage, including a long list of inflammatory statements about abortion rights, transgender people, women and Jews. Trumpâ€s popularity within the GOP base would make his endorsement virtually impossible to overcome, leaving other Republicans powerless to air the risks he posed.

By that point, Robinson was a rising Republican star with proven abilities as a public speaker. It started with a speech in 2018 that went viral and put him on the radar of party activists. The city of Greensboro was thinking about canceling a gun show after the mass school shooting in Parkland, Fla., and Robinson, a longtime factory worker, was outraged. “Iâ€m a law-abiding citizen whoâ€s never shot anybody!â€� he said at a city council meeting.

For years, Robinson had vented about politics on Facebook, railing against Democrats and posting homemade memes. He suddenly had a bigger platform. The National Rifle Association put him in a commercial and gave him a speaking slot at its Dallas convention.

He launched a shoestring campaign for lieutenant governor after cold-calling political consultants and enlisting a young man just out of college to serve as his top adviser. The blue-collar worker who said he grew up amid poverty, alcoholism and abuse — and at multiple points declared bankruptcy — trounced other GOP candidates with political experience and more money before winning the general election.

He became a fixture at conservative conferences, giving fiery speeches around the country. And he caught the eye of Trump.

“Heâ€s the hottest guy in politics,â€� Trump declared at the Faith and Freedom Coalitionâ€s 2022 “Road to Majorityâ€� conference in Nashville.

At the same time, much of Robinsonâ€s baggage was in plain sight on his Facebook page. He called school shooting survivors “media prosti-totsâ€�; mocked actresses for wearing “whore dresses to protest sexual harassmentâ€�; used antisemitic tropes and railed against a movie hero he said was created by a Jewish person to “pull the shekelsâ€� out of Black peopleâ€s pockets; and predicted that acceptance of homosexuality would lead to pedophilia.

“Thereâ€s no reason anybody anywhere in America should be telling any child about transgenderism, homosexuality — any of that filth,â€� he told a church congregation in 2021.

“And yes I called it filth,� he added forcefully.

Still, top Republicans in North Carolina embraced Robinson — the stateâ€s first Black lieutenant governor — as the future of their party. Robinson announced his bid for governor in the spring of 2023 with Berger, the powerful Republican leader of the state Senate, joining him onstage.

Republicans around Robinson recalled periodic chatter that more damaging information might surface. “There were always rumors circulating,â€� said one person close to the Robinson campaign, some of them demonstrably false and some of them harder to assess. “We were like, Jesus, I hope thatâ€s not true.â€�

But the porn site posts were never part of that chatter, the person said.

‘There was universal concernâ€

Some Republicans tried to warn the party that nominating Robinson for what could be the most competitive governorâ€s race of 2024 would backfire. Bill Graham, a lawyer and millionaire venture capitalist who challenged Robinson in the primary, said he made that case to the Republican Governors Association and jumped into the race in October 2023 under the impression that there would be major third party spending to sideline Robinson. The RGA sought input for a potential team, according to Grahamâ€s chief strategist, Paul Shumaker.

Courtney Alexander, a spokeswoman for the RGA, said in a statement the group met with all the GOP candidates and “had no involvement in the North Carolina primary.â€� The RGA had concerns about Robinson but thought he would win the primary no matter what, according to a person familiar with groupâ€s thinking, who called the notion that any of Robinsonâ€s opponents could have prevailed “revisionist history.â€�

GOP operatives laid plans in fall of 2023 for a large ad campaign against Robinson. “There was universal concern from Washington all the way down to Charlotte that this guy was going to be an electoral disaster,� said a person involved in the plans.

But some eventually concluded that Robinson would be impossible to beat, the person said. The third-party spending effort was shelved.

Republicans dug through Robinsonâ€s past and found all kinds of offensive comments they tried to use against him in the primary. Graham ran attack ads accusing Robinson of “demeaning womenâ€� and “defending sexual predators.â€� Other GOP challengers — including state treasurer Dale Folwell and former Congressman Mark Walker — were harshly critical, too.

None could come close to Robinsonâ€s star power or following within the GOP base.

Republicans did vulnerability studies on Robinson, but multiple people familiar with GOP vetting of Robinson said it did not surface the porn forum posts. Robinson beat his closest primary opponent by 45 points.

Folwell said an interview that Robinson was “selected by former president Trumpâ€� and other party officials who elevated him. Those officials and their consultants “did know, should have known or,â€� he added, “didnâ€t want to knowâ€� about Robinsonâ€s flaws.

“The party I joined nearly 50 years ago was based on conservatism, common sense, courtesy, humanity, humility and ethics,� he said, lamenting “counterfeit conservatives like Mark Robinson who think they can build our party by telling people who to hate.�

Even Robinsonâ€s critics acknowledge that he was politically talented. “He was probably one of the most effective, dogmatic, dangerous populist speakers that Iâ€ve ever seen in my political career,â€� said McCrory, the former GOP governor.

For a time, it seemed to Republicans that a strong night for Trump in North Carolina could pull Robinson over the finish line. Robinson tailored his message for the general election, leaning into economic issues. Republicans tested some of Robinsonâ€s more inflammatory public comments after he won the primary and found that he still mostly held the Trump base together.

But Harrisâ€s replacement of Biden at the top of the ticket made North Carolina more competitive, and moderate voters kept recoiling from Robinson. By the time CNN reached out to the campaign on Sept. 17 about the porn site account, many Republicans had already become resigned to the likelihood that Robinson would lose.

As state party leaders braced for CNNâ€s story to drop, however, a small handful of them initially held onto the hope that they could somehow control the damage.

One top Republican election lawyer in the state, Phil Strach, had led the legal effort to remove Robert F. Kennedy Jr.â€s name from the ballot a few weeks earlier, forcing counties to reprint their ballots just as they were preparing to send them out.

It was worth a try to see if it could happen again, the Republicans said in conversations that day. But it required Robinson to voluntarily exit the race.

Around the same time, Robinson released a video denying the latest allegations even before the details had published. He vowed to stay in the race.

There was no controlling the damage, the Republicans concluded. And that ended the conversation.

Gardner and LeVine reported from Washington.