Former President Donald Trump distanced himself from controversial Republican North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who is also the Republican nominee for governor, as he visited three cities in North Carolina to tout the state’s early voting initiatives.
The former president was asked if he would encourage his supporters to continue backing Robinson while campaigning on Monday but he did not commit to backing the embattled GOP nominee.
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“I’m not familiar with the state of the race right now,” Trump told reporters. “I haven’t seen it.”
Robinson is facing a tough battle to win the gubernatorial race after CNN published a bombshell report about his past comments on pornographic websites last month.
Robinson once described himself as a “black Nazi” and made crude remarks about civil rights legend Martin Luther King Jr. on a pornography website’s message board, according to CNN’s report. Robinson has since filed a $50 million defamation lawsuit against the television network.
Trump had previously endorsed the lieutenant governor, which boosted him in his primary race despite some hesitancy around his controversial comments on women, the LGBT community, and other minority groups. Before the CNN report, Trump had repeatedly praised Robinson and compared him to Martin Luther King Jr.
But now Robinson has not appeared on the campaign stump with either Trump or the former president’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH). At the Greenville rally, Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC) spoke onstage before Trump gave his speech.
Democrats attempted to tie Trump to Robinson in hopes of flipping the state blue for the first time since 2008, but polls show that the former president is still leading Vice President Kamala Harris in the Tar Heel State.
Trump also appeared in Asheville to tour the devastation from Hurricane Helene and will visit Concord later Monday evening for a meeting with faith leaders.
At the Greenville rally, Trump also praised voters for breaking early voting records in the state.
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More than 1 million votes have been cast in the state that Trump will need to win to help bolster his campaign and defeat Harris.
“They set a record for the first few days of voting,” Trump said, noting that the record comes after Helene’s wreckage. “Now, these are people that lost their houses. In some cases, unfortunately, they lost family members, and yet they set a record in early voting.”