North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson will not speak or appear at former President Donald Trump 's rally on Saturday in the eastern part of his state following a CNN report about his alleged posts on a pornography website's message board, two people familiar with the matter said Friday.
Robinson is not expected to attend the event in Wilmington, according to a person on the Trump campaign and a second person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning.
Robinson has been a frequent presence at Trump's North Carolina campaign stops. The Republican nominee has referred to Robinson, who is Black, as "Martin Luther King on steroids" and long praised him. But in the wake of Thursday's CNN report , the Trump campaign issued a statement that didn't mention Robinson and instead spoke generally about how North Carolina was key to the campaign's efforts.
With the deadline now passed for him to withdraw, Robinson remained the Republican candidate for governor on Friday. His decision to keep campaigning could threaten GOP prospects in other key races, including Trump's efforts in a battleground state he twice won.
Robinson has denied writing the posts, which include racial and sexual comments. He said wouldn't be forced out of the race by 'salacious tabloid lies." While Robinson won his GOP gubernatorial primary in March, he's been trailing in several recent polls to Democratic nominee Josh Stein , the state's attorney general.
