Less than 24 hours later CNN published a bombshell report on comments it said Mark Robinson, the Republican candidate for governor of North Carolina, made on a pornographic website, the Democratic National Committee unveiled new ads linking them to former President Donald Trump .
The DNC plans to launch a new digital ad and nearly a dozen billboards highlighting how Trump praised Robinson, who is the lieutenant governor of North Carolina, according to a source familiar with the matter and a press release from DNC regional press secretary Kenny Palmer. NBC News was the first to report the new advertising push.
By tying Trump to Robinson, Democrats hope to cut Trump’s support in the state, which hasn’t been won by a Democratic presidential candidate since 2008.
North Carolina could be decisive in a tight presidential race, and Senator JD Vance of Ohio, Trump’s running mate, said himself that it would be “very hard” for his ticket to win in November, if the Democrats hit North Carolina.
The DNC announcements will launch on Friday. Digital ads will target North Carolina voters on YouTube and Facebook, the source said, while Palmer said in the news release that billboards will be posted in cities across the state. battlefield.
The source familiar with the matter said television ads aimed at linking Trump to Robinson are “definitely on the table.” Nothing is closed, the source added.
The billboard design features a photo of Trump and Robinson posing together, along with quotes Trump said about Robinson, such as “we care about Mark” and that Robinson is “outstanding” and an “incredible gentleman.”
Digital ads echo similar sentiments, the source said.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the Democrats’ attempt to link the two men through advertising. A spokesman for Robinson’s campaign, Mike Lonergan, responded to NBC News’ inquiry with a statement that included links to a video of Robinson denying the CNN report and several news items items on his opponent in the governor’s race, state Attorney General Josh Stein, who was previously Stein critics and many of his own claims about Robinson during the campaign.
U CNN story published On Thursday, he detailed a series of racist and anti-Semitic comments he says Robinson made on a pornographic site’s message board. Robinson called the allegations “tabloid trash” in a video posted before the story was published.
CNN reported that Robinson’s comments were made between 2008 and 2012 and included statements that he was a “black NAZI,” claiming that “slavery is not bad” and adding that he wanted to “bring it back.”
Robinson also said that if he were in the Ku Klux Klan, he would refer to Martin Luther King Jr. using a racial slur, CNN reported. In March, Trump called Robinson “Martin Luther King on steroids.”
“I told Mark. I said, ‘I think you’re better than Martin Luther King.’ I think you’re Martin Luther King twice,” Trump said at a rally in Greensboro in which he endorsed Robinson for governor.
Robinson was elected lieutenant governor in 2020 and has vowed to stay in the race for governor.
Trump praised Robinson, calling him “outstanding” and “one of the hottest politicians”. He said that Robinson has “become a friend of mine”. Robinson also spoke at the Republican National Convention this summer.
DNC Chair Jaime Harrison said in a statement: “Donald Trump and Mark Robinson are two MAGA extremists cut from the same cloth. Both are anti-choice radicals, election deniers, and have a long and disturbing history of spewing l ‘hate. Make no mistake: Trump has embraced and linked to Robinson at every turn.”
A spokesperson for the Trump campaign released a statement after the story broke, though it did not mention Robinson or the comments that CNN alleges.
“President Trump’s campaign is focused on winning the White House and saving this country. North Carolina is a vital part of that plan,” spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in the statement. “We are confident that as voters compare Trump’s record of a strong economy, low inflation, a secure border and safe roads, with the failures of Biden-Harris, then President Trump will win the Tarheel State once again. our eye off the ball.”
The Harris campaign’s X account posted more than a half-dozen times in the hours after the CNN story broke, linking Trump and Robinson. The posts include clips of Trump praising Robinson at rallies and shaking hands and of them posing for pictures together.
Trump narrowly won North Carolina in 2020, securing 49.9% of the vote to Joe Biden’s 48.6%. The Democrats met in North Carolina as a possible state to return in November, which would give the Harris campaign 16 voters, which could be decisive.
The state “was competitive before, and Republican extremism is front and center in this state — from Trump to Robinson to the candidates on the ballot,” DNC spokesman Abhi Rahman said in a text message.
Democrats have poured millions of dollars in advertising spending into the state, and Harris has made several stops around the state for rallies this month. Two Harris rallies in North Carolina last week drew about 25,000 spectators combined.
A Quinnipiac University Poll conducted this month indicated that Harris had the support of 49% of likely voters, while Trump had the support of 46%. The results were within the poll’s margin of error, 3.2 percentage points.