Former North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson has admitted there was “truth” to a bombshell 2024 investigative report detailing graphic and racist comments he made on a pornography website, reversing years of vehement denials.
Speaking on the March 19 episode of the After the Call podcast, Robinson, 57, acknowledged that his previous dismissals of the allegations were part of a calculated effort to protect his gubernatorial campaign and the presidential prospects of Donald Trump.
“I won’t say that I completely lied,” Robinson said during the interview. “Some of the things about the whole story… there’s some truth to it.”
The controversy stems from a September 2024 CNN investigation that linked Robinson to a series of inflammatory posts on “Nude Africa,” a pornography forum. The report alleged that between 2008 and 2012, Robinson referred to himself as a “black NAZI,” expressed support for the reinstatement of slavery, and utilized racial slurs against civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
At the height of his 2024 campaign for governor, Robinson labeled the report “salacious tabloid trash” and filed a $50 million defamation lawsuit against CNN. He later dropped that lawsuit in January 2025 after losing the election to Democrat Josh Stein by a margin of 14 points.
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Robinson now admits he prioritized political “expediency” over honesty during the election cycle. He stated that he felt compelled to maintain the fight to avoid becoming a liability for other Republican candidates, specifically mentioning the President of the United States.
“If I had to ignore the truth at that moment for their expediency, I felt like it was the right thing to do,” Robinson said. He added that he did not want to be the person who “cost the president of the United States the election.”
During the podcast, Robinson also disclosed a lifelong “obsession” with pornography, describing it as a fascination that followed him from a young age. He compared his experience to that of a recovering drug addict or alcoholic, stating there is “no shame” in moving past such a lifestyle.
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Despite these admissions, Robinson continued to cast doubt on whether he authored every specific comment cited in the CNN report. He suggested that while the “meat on the bone” of his past conversations made such posts “possible to be crafted” by others, he conceded that he had said enough “salacious things” to make the attributions plausible.
Robinson served as the 35th Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina from 2021 to 2025, making history as the first Black man to hold the office. He has since indicated he has no immediate plans to seek elected office in the future.
