Mark Robinson, the Republican Party’s North Carolina gubernatorial nominee known for his anti-LGBTQ screeds, has been accused of allegedly writing sexually lewd and politically inflammatory comments on a pornography website’s message board over a decade ago.

Robinson, who is Black, reportedly referred to himself on the message board as a “black NAZI!” and expressed support for reinstating slavery, disparaged Martin Luther King, Jr., and made derogatory comments about the Black, gay, Muslim, and Jewish communities, according to a shocking report from CNN.

The comments on the message board, which date back to a time period between 2008 and 2012, predate Robinson’s political activism and his stint as North Carolina’s current Lieutenant Governor.

The online user, who CNN claims is Robinson, claimed to be a “perv” on the message boards of the porn website Nude Africa, allegedly writing graphic, sexually explicit messages talking about extramarital affairs, physical sex acts, and bodily fluids and claiming to be sleeping with his sister-in-law — all of which may or may not have been part of a fetish or roleplay fantasy scenario.

Despite his repeated use of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric on the campaign trail, and attempts to cast transgender females as predatory and a danger to women in restrooms, Robinson allegedly claimed, in posts written over a decade ago, that he loved watching pornographic scenes where transgender women have sex with cisgender women.

“I like watching tranny on girl porn! That’s fucking hot! It takes the man out while leaving the man in!” Robinson allegedly wrote. 

He also allegedly mused about finding sexual arousal from recalling memories of “peeping” on women in public showers as a teenager.

The comments were made under the username “minisoldr,” a moniker that Robinson had used as his Twitter (now renamed X) handle, and on YouTube — where the URL for youtube.com/user/minisoldr now redirects to a user page for “iamthemajorityusa” — as well as Pinterest, Disqus and the Black social networking site Black Planet.

CNN reports that the news outlet first reached out to Robinson on September 17, but that it took two days for Robinson’s campaign to respond with a denial. 

Ahead of the story’s publication, Robinson posted a video to social media denying the allegations, saying the controversial, sexually explicit comments made on the Nude Africa were not his words.

He also cast aspersions on the campaign of his Democratic opponent, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, whom he accusing of having “leaked” the story.

Noting that he would not be withdrawing from the gubernatorial race, Robinson said, “[Supreme Court Justice] Clarence Thomas famously once said he was the victim of high-tech lynching. Well, it looks like Mark Robinson is too.”

The scandal comes a few weeks after The Assembly, a North Carolina-based digital publication, reported that Robinson allegedly frequented local video pornography shops in the 1990s and 2000s — claims that the Robinson campaign denies.

In an interview with CNN on September 19, Robinson denied making the comments on the Nude Africa forums.

“This is not us. These are not our words. And this is not anything that is characteristic of me,” Robinson said.

However, CNN was able to match the email address of the Nude Africa user to the email Robinson reportedly used on the Disqus platform.

CNN was also able to match some of the biographical details of Robinson’s personal life with information shared by “minisoldr” on various social media sites and on the Nude Africa message boards.

Additionally, CNN was able to link Robinson to the “minisoldr” username through reviews of products and places of business that both “minisoldr” and Robinson have publicly recommended; matching postings about specific topics such as minisoldr and Robinson’s shared attraction to specific celebrities and their favorite Twilight Zone episode; and matching unique language choices — such as “gag a maggot,” “dunder head,” “I don’t give a frog’s ass,” and “I don’t give two shakes of it” — used by both minisoldr on Nude Africa and by Robinson on his personal Facebook page.

“I’m not going to get into the minutia of how somebody manufactured this, these salacious tabloid lies,” Robinson said, alleging that the Stein campaign had somehow carried out a sophisticated digital campaign to frame him. 

Beyond talking about his sexual predilections, Robinson also used the Nude Africa forums to espouse controversial views or make inflammatory comments on a host of issues.

In one posting in an October 2010 forum discussing Black Republicans, he allegedly stated, unprompted, “I’m a black NAZI!”

That same month, Robinson claimed to support the return of slavery, reportedly writing, “Slavery is not bad. Some people need to be slaves. I wish they would bring it [slavery] back. I would certainly buy a few.”

In March 2012, Robinson wrote that he preferred former German Chancellor Adolf Hitler over the leadership in Washington, D.C. during the administration of former U.S. President Barack Obama. “I’d take Hitler over any of the shit that’s in Washington right now!” he wrote.

Robinson disparaged civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., calling him a “commie bastard,” “worse than a maggot,” a “huckster,” and a “ho fucking, phony.”

His comments led another user to accuse him of being in the Ku Klux Klan, to which he responded, “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 [racial epithet].”

Robinson also allegedly used the anti-Semitic slur “hebe” when discussing how he liked the show Good Times developed by Norman Lear, saying “the show itself was a bunch of heb [sic] written liberal bullshit!”

He referred to Muslims as “little rag-headed bastards,” and said that “if Muslims took over liberals would be the 1st ones to be beheaded!”

He also expressed anti-gay sentiment, frequently calling other Nude Africa message board posters “f*gs.” In a largely positive forum discussion featuring a photo of two men kissing after one returned from a military deployment, Robinson allegedly penned the sole negative comment.

“That’s sum ole sick ass f****t bullshit!” he wrote.

Additionally, while Robinson now claims to support a bill to ban abortion after six weeks, with exceptions for rape, incest, and the health of the mother (despite having previously advocated for a ban without exceptions during his 2020 campaign for lieutenant governor), he appeared to imply he did not actually care about an issue that is a primary motivator for many Republican-leaning voters. 

According to Axios, Robinson became enmeshed in controversy earlier this year when he said that abortion was “about killing the child because you weren’t responsible enough to keep your skirt down,” a comment that political observers claim was not well received by voters.

However, his comments in private appear at odds with his public stances. When told by another user on the Nude Africa message board that a celebrity whom he liked had received an abortion, Robinson allegedly wrote, “I don’t care. I just wanna see the sex tape!”

In another thread, Robinson appeared to make light of sexual assault. When commenters sought to weigh in on the story of a woman who claimed to have been raped by a taxi driver while intoxicated, Robinson allegedly wrote, “and the moral of this story….. Don’t fuck a white bitch!”

Shortly after the CNN story broke, the political news site Politico reported that Robinson’s email had allegedly been used to register for an account on Ashley Madison, a site for married people looking to engage in extramarital affairs.

An anonymous adviser to Robinson told Politico that the email used to create the Ashley Madison account was Robinson’s, and was the same email address that was used by the user on the Nude Africa website.

“Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson denies that he ever created or used an account on this website,” Mike Lonergan, Robinson’s communications director, said, referring to Ashley Madison.

The Republican Party has largely rallied around Robinson, accusing the media of manufacturing the story. 

“Mark Robinson has categorically denied the allegations made by CNN but that won’t stop the Left from trying to demonize him via personal attacks,” the North Carolina Republican Party said in a statement, as reported by Axios.

Despite earning the full endorsement of former President Donald Trump, Robinson has struggled in recent rounds of polling conducted in the Tarheel State. While an internal Trump campaign poll found Trump running three points ahead of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, the same poll found Robinson lagging behind Stein by 14 points in the governor’s race. 

While it is unlikely that Robinson will actually lose by 14 points or more in the race — particularly given North Carolina’s conservative lean — the polling indicates that Robinson faces a much more difficult battle — possibly due, in part, to his past incendiary rhetoric as well as stories like the allegations of having frequented porn shops.

The fact that the online messages occurred years ago should help insulate Robinson from losing support among evangelical and socially conservative voters, who will point to his more recent rhetoric around issues like abortion and LGBTQ rights as evidence of how he would govern if elected. They may be more willing to forgive Robinson for past actions taken or views held when he was younger.

It remains to be seen what, if any, effect the allegations against Robinson will have on the presidential race. Thus far, the Trump campaign has not sought to distance itself from the Republican nominee.

Trump is scheduled to hold a rally on September 21 in Wilmington, North Carolina. Robinson last appeared with Trump when he made his way through a crowd to the stage during an August 21 rally in Asheboro, North Carolina. Trump had called local sheriffs to the stage, but had not expressly acknowledged Robinson’s presence at the rally.