GREENSBORO, N.C. — A damaging report, and a candidate refusing to back down.
Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson said his eyes are set on the Governor's mansion, as turmoil surrounds his campaign.
"We are staying in this race. We are in it to win it and we know that with your help, we will. God bless you and we will see you where? On the campaign trail," Robinson said.
All of this comes less than two months out from Election Day, as voters start to finalize their picks.
The report accused Robinson of making a long list of comments on an adult film website more than a decade ago. Many of them WFMY News 2 chose not to share because they are so graphic.
The report quotes messages, allegedly by Robinson, saying things like, 'I'm a Black NAZI,' with another message reading quote 'I'm a perv'.
The report said Robinson supported bringing back slavery, and suggested he'd prefer Hitler over leaders in Washington.
There was a lot of speculation that Robinson could drop out of the race for governor because of the report.
Before the report came out, Robinson released a video trying to discredit it. He said he never said any of those things and said they were A-I generated. He also referred to the accusations as salacious lies.
"Those are not the words of Mark Robinson. You know my words, you know my character and you know that I have been completely transparent in this race. Clarence Thomas famously once said he was the victim of high-tech lynching. Well, it looks like Mark Robinson is too," Robinson said.
The report spread like wildfire through all levels of government in our state.
WFMY News 2's Nixon Norman got reaction from officials on both sides of the aisle, Republican Dale Folwell and Democrat Pricey Harrison. Both state leaders and both not pleased with a CNN report that said Robinson made racist and sexually graphic comments on an adult website.
North Carolina's State Treasurer, Folwell went head to head with Robinson during the primary election back in March. Both may be Republicans, but Folwell describes himself as a true conservative and said the report made about Robinson stands against those values.
"You know, the Republican party that I have joined nearly 50 years ago is a party that's based on you know, conservatism, which means to save, common sense, humanity, humility and ethics and this reporting that's going on today, it shows that he [Robinson] has none of those things," Folwell said.
State Representative Pricey Harrison from Guilford County said the accusations are horrible, but not surprising.
"This is not new. None of this is new. It's been going on for years. So, Republicans were willing to embrace him and endorse him as the gubernatorial candidate and now that the information about him is public and it's actually effecting all the races on the ballot, there's urgency," Harrison said.
Both leaders said Robinson's run has been powered by endorsements, which can have consequences.
"What this demonstrates is that in some instances, we don't have elections, we have selections and when you get the endorsement of the former president and the Republican national chair, who used to be the North Carolina party chair, you know, it's really hard to over come that," Folwell said.
Harrison said it also shows how politicians in today's world can use what some consider extreme views to get attention.
"I might be prejudice but I don't think the Democrats are having the same kind of experience. If our candidates are extreme it's because they're extreme about access to women's reproductive rights or equality or clean environment but not this crazy stuff," Harrison said.
WFMY News 2 did attempt to go to the home of Robinson in Colfax around 7:30 p.m. to get his reaction to all of this. No cars were in the driveway. No one answered the door.