Half of Mark Robinson’s staffers leave lieutenant governor’s office after dramatic campaign exodus

Mark Robinson continues to be battered by staff resignations as the fallout from a CNN investigation into his past continues.

The North Carolina lieutenant governor previously saw the lion’s share of his campaign staff quit over the weekend — resignations which included his campaign manager and deputy campaign manager, leaving him with little more than a spokesman. On Tuesday, it was further reported by WRAL, a local news outlet, that the staff exodus extended to non-campaign staff at his state office in Raleigh.

Just half of his staff remains, according to WRAL, which cited sources familiar with the situation. Four staffers have quit or are in the process of doing so, according to the news outlet; they include Robinson’s spokesman, policy director, government affairs director and another top adviser.

A request for comment from The Independent was not immediately answered. The website of the lieutenant governor’s office indicated that Robinson’s scheduler and constituent services director remained as points of contact.

Over the weekend, eight staffers resigned from Robinson’s campaign. He had just three remaining after the initial exodus, according to reports.

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The total collapse of his campaign and state office follows the publication of a lengthy CNN KFile investigation last Thursday. The investigation reported that it had linked Robinson, through a known screenname and email address, to a long series of comments made on a porn site called Nude Africa. The contents of those posts were shocking in nature — in addition to calling himself a “Black Nazi” and telling others he would like to own slaves, the account also made lurid and jaw-droppingly graphic comments about his own sexual habits and preferences, including a fascination for “tranny porn”, according to CNN.

Robinson has strongly denied making the posts in a video message. On Tuesday, he also announced the hiring of a law firm to lead an “independent investigation” into the posts. He hasn’t said what he would do with the results of that investigation, including whether they’d be made public, and has not commented further on a threat to file a defamation lawsuit against CNN over the report.

Meanwhile, his own party is abandoning him in droves. Donald Trump declined to mention his candidacy at a rally on Saturday in Wilmington where he shouted-out numerous Republican electeds in attendance. The Republican Governor’s Association (RGA) has also pulled ad funding for his campaign and a number of GOP governors from neighboring states have withdrawn endorsements.

Robinson was already trailing his Democratic rival Josh Stein in all available polling before the publication of CNN’s report. Now, it seems like his party is pulling its lifelines at the worst possible moment — in more ways than one. In the hours after the publication of CNN’s report last week, North Carolina’s deadline for the withdrawal of candidacy for the 2024 cycle came and went; Republicans are now stuck with their gubernatorial nominee.

Polling of the state separately shows Vice President Kamala Harris trailing Donald Trump by a low single-digit margin, similar to the threshold by which Joe Biden was defeated in the state in 2020.