Former North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson, who ran for governor in 2024, has announced that he will not seek public office in the future and that he’s dropping a lawsuit against CNN for the network’s reporting on comments he made on a porn site.
Robinson wrote on X on Friday that he was sharing “an important life update” and that he and his family were “turning the page.”
“Costly litigation and political gamesmanship by my detractors makes clear that continuing to pursue retribution from CNN is a futile effort,” he added. “That is why I have asked Jesse Binnall and his legal team to terminate any continued attempt to litigate with CNN on my or my family’s behalf.“
“I will not run next year, nor do I have plans to seek elected office in the future,” said Robinson.
The 56-year-old shared his full name on the porn site Nude Africa and was a frequent user of its message board, where he posted lewd and offensive comments, according to the bombshell CNN Report. He also used an email address on the site that he used on a number of other sites for years. He also used the username “minisoldr,” on other websites. CNN matched the “minisoldr” account to a large number of biographical details shared by Robinson.
Robinson, who reportedly made the comments between 2008 and 2012, was quick to reject all responsibility for the remarks, which were posted before he went into politics. They were removed by the website following CNN’s report.
On Friday, Robinson wrote on X that “the price we have paid in entering the political arena will never be recognized. There is no dollar amount high enough.”
He blamed his departure from politics on the “political persecution of my family and loved ones,” saying that it’s “a cost I am unwilling to continue to bear.”
Robinson claimed that the “investigation of CNN” had “tremendous results” and “brought closure to our family during what has been an unimaginably dark situation.”
In comments on the porn site attributed to Robinson, he wrote about “peeping” on women in public gym showers when he was 14.
“I came to a spot that was a dead end but had two big vent covers over it! It just so happened it overlooked the showers! I sat there for about an hour and watched as several girls came in and showered,” he wrote on Nude Africa, according to CNN.
“I like watching t**** on girl porn! That’s f****** hot! It takes the man out while leaving the man in!” Robinson wrote in separate comments on the site. He has a history of anti-trans rhetoric.
Robinson said on X on Friday that he would “continue to utilize my platform to promote and support many of the issues we are all so passionate about; however, at this time, I will do so from the sidelines.”
“Until we change the hearts and souls of those inside the political arena, it is unlikely the political process itself will undergo any meaningful change,” he added.
In his reported online comments, Robinson also repeatedly attacked Martin Luther King Jr, including when a new monument was put in place in Washington, DC.
“Get that f****** commie b****** off the National Mall!” he wrote at the time.
One user accused the former gubernatorial nominee of being a white supremacist.
“I’m not in the KKK. They don’t let blacks join. If I was in the KKK I would have called him Martin Lucifer K***!” he wrote.
Robinson also wrote “I’m a Black NAZI!” on a forum discussing Black Republicans.
“Slavery is not bad. Some people need to be slaves. I wish they would bring it (slavery) back. I would certainly buy a few,” he wrote in a separate post.
“I’d take Hitler over any of the s*** that’s in Washington right now!” he wrote in March 2012.
In October 2011, he called Martin Luther King Jr “worse than a maggot” and a “huckster.”
President Donald Trump appeared to distance himself from Robinson following the CNN report, campaigning in North Carolina last year without the Republican gubernatorial nominee. Trump previously referred to Robinson as Martin Luther King “on steroids.”
At the time of the reporting in September, Robinson rejected that he was behind the comments, calling the report “tabloid lies” when speaking to CNN.
“This is not us. These are not our words. And this is not anything that is characteristic of me,” he said at the time. “I’m not going to get into the minutia of how somebody manufactured this, these salacious tabloid lies.”
He has also attempted to blame artificial intelligence for making the posts.
