North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson (R) is threatening to sue CNN over a report it published last week unearthing salacious messages it reported Robinson posted on a porn website.
“We absolutely are,” Robinson, who has denied CNN’s reporting, said Monday when asked by a reporter at a campaign stop if he had taken steps to prove the allegations against him are untrue. “We’re in talks right now, everything up to legal counsel to take CNN to task for what they have done to us. We are going after them, OK? We are going to go after them for what they’ve done.”
The Republican’s comments were first highlighted by Mediaite.
The bombshell report laid out inflammatory and offensive comments Robinson reportedly made on a porn website’s message board more than a decade ago, including some in which he called himself a “black NAZI” and said he would like to own slaves.
The report sparked the resignation of several key staffers atop the lieutenant governor’s campaign for North Carolina’s highest statewide office over the weekend.
“Make no mistake about it … we are not going to let CNN throw us off of our mission,” Robinson said Monday. “Think about what’s going on our border. Think about what’s going on on the world stage. And this is what you — this is what you choose to focus on? You’ve got these news cameras, news reporters, pens, pencils, your microphones, this is what you’re focused on?”
CNN did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Robinson’s legal threat.