Robinson loses key outside support as RGA suggests it won’t spend any more on race for North Carolina governor
“We don’t comment on internal strategy or investment decisions, but we can confirm what’s public – our current media buy in North Carolina expires tomorrow, and no further placements have been made. RGA remains committed to electing Republican Governors all across the country,” RGA communications director Courtney Alexander said in a statement.
By Eric Bradner, David Wright and Andrew Kaczynski, CNN
September 23, 2024
National Republicans are pulling their financial support for Mark Robinson, the party’s scandal-plagued nominee in the North Carolina governor’s race, as he tries to weather the fallout from a CNN report on inflammatory comments he made on a porn website.
amp.cnn.com
Newly unearthed data shows closer links to Robinson and porn, dating sites
NATALIE ALLISON
09/23/2024
Top Republican leaders in North Carolina have called on Mark Robinson to provide proof that he wasn’t behind salacious posts on a pornography website — but new information continues to point to his involvement in the type of online sexual activity he denies.
User data reviewed by POLITICO shows that the person using the “Nude Africa” account that reportedly belonged to Robinson had accessed the porn website from a location not far from Robinson’s home. Robinson’s email address is also registered with other previously unreported dating websites, POLITICO found.
Robinson, whose top campaign advisers and nearly all his staff resigned on Sunday, continues to deny a CNN report that he called himself a “black NAZI,” admitted to enjoying watching transgender pornography and made graphic comments about other sexual preferences more than a decade ago on Nude Africa. He also denied a report by POLITICO that he had an account on Ashley Madison, a website for married people seeking affairs.
A new POLITICO review of account data associated with Robinson’s email address from multiple websites that had been previously hacked — and the websites’ breached user data posted on the dark web in recent years — shows that the IP address listed with Robinson’s Nude Africa account is located in the Piedmont Triad region of North Carolina where he lived.
Files from the various data breaches that captured Robinson’s user information were shared with POLITICO by Megan Squire, a computer scientist and deputy director for data analytics at the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit legal advocacy group that has not taken a position on the North Carolina governor’s race but has monitored Robinson’s “extremism and hateful statements as Lieutenant Governor and in his prior life as an influencer,” Squire said.
Robinson’s account on the pornographic online forum, which was part of a 2018 data breach by Nude Africa’s parent website “Wife Lovers,” was registered with an IP address corresponding to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, a city near Robinson’s home of Greensboro and part of the same tri-city region.
The same IP address was also listed in breached user data for an account registered to Robinson’s email address on the dating website Fling, POLITICO found. Leaked database files from other website breaches show that Robinson’s email address was registered on the dating websites Adult Friend Finder and Mate 1, and the now-defunct website Lords Of Porno. There is no evidence that Robinson was recently active on any of these websites. The leaked data from Adult Friend Finder listed his last visit as December 31, 2013.
“The things that people can do with the internet now is incredible,” Robinson told CNN last week, denying the posts were his after being presented with evidence linking the account to him.
The breached data also revealed that the password that Robinson’s email address used to register with Nude Africa was nearly identical to a password used by three separate accounts registered under his wife’s email address on non-pornographic websites, including DatPiff, a now-retired hip-hop mixtape website. The passwords used the same obscure phrase.
Mike Lonergan, Robinson’s spokesperson, repeated the campaign’s denials that the lieutenant governor “ever created or used an account on any of these websites” and stated that they’re hiring lawyers to investigate the matter.
Robinson, who had previously admitted to other past issues that came to light through news stories — such as mismanaging his finances and taking his wife to get an abortion decades ago — has stayed firm in denying the latest revelations.
That prompted top North Carolina Republicans, including Sens. Thom Tillis and Ted Budd, to call for Robinson to show evidence of libel, beyond just claiming the stories are smears.
“If the reporting on Mark Robinson is a total media fabrication, he needs to take immediate legal action,” Tillis wrote on Friday.
And North Carolina Republican Party chair Jason Simmons told POLITICO in a statement that the accusations Robinson is facing “are deeply troubling,” adding that “he needs to explain them to the people of North Carolina.”
Robinson has not filed any lawsuits related to the allegations about his online activity. During a campaign stop Monday, Robinson said he is considering “everything up to legal counsel to take CNN to task for what they have done to us,” WRAL reported. The Raleigh-based TV station also reported that Robinson had rejected offers from supporters to connect him with information technology experts who would help him investigate the posts.
Former President Donald Trump, who endorsed Robinson in the Republican primary earlier this year, has publicly remained silent about the embattled lieutenant governor. Trump did not mention him Saturday at a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, and Robinson did not appear at the event.
The Republican Governors Association, meanwhile, says it has not placed any other ad reservations on Robinson’s behalf, after the organization and its super PAC spent roughly $16 million on ads in the race, according to the ad tracking firm AdImpact. That leaves Robinson without any more TV ads scheduled. Democrat Josh Stein’s campaign has booked $13 million worth of ads for the coming weeks.
“We don’t comment on internal strategy or investment decisions, but we can confirm what’s public — our current media buy in North Carolina expires tomorrow, and no further placements have been made,” said RGA spokesperson Courtney Alexander. “RGA remains committed to electing Republican Governors all across the country.”
But Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, who chairs the RGA, is pulling his support for Robinson, a spokesperson for the governor told POLITICO.
“Gov. Lee is no longer supporting Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson’s gubernatorial bid,” said Lee spokesperson Elizabeth Johnson.
And Trump’s running mate Sen. JD Vance on Monday echoed calls by North Carolina Republican leaders for Robinson to explain how the allegations against him are false, though he did not call on Robinson to step down.
“I’ve seen some of the statements, I haven’t seen them all. Some of them are pretty gross, to put it mildly,” Vance said during a campaign stop in Charlotte. “Mark Robinson says that those statements are false, that he didn’t actually speak them. I think it’s up to Mark Robinson to make his case to the people of North Carolina that those weren’t his statements and I’m going to let him make that case.”
Robinson’s former general consultant confirmed to POLITICO that at least eight campaign employees have stepped down, a number larger than the four the campaign announced on Sunday. That leaves Robinson without his consultant, campaign manager and deputy, finance director and deputy, two political directors and director of operations.
After canceling campaign events late last week, Robinson appeared at the Fayetteville Motor Speedway on Saturday, saying he was focused on the race and calling recent reports about him “garbage.”While at least two fundraisers set for this week have been canceled, Robinson is still invited to speak at “Salt & Light,” a conservative Christian conference this weekend held by the North Carolina Faith & Freedom Coalition. Robinson is scheduled to speak Saturday afternoon, the organization’s executive director Jason Williams confirmed to POLITICO.
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