2024 Election | Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, his lawyers to give update on investigation into CNN report

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) — Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson, alongside his legal team, announced Tuesday he has filed a defamation lawsuit against CNN for a report alleging he made inflammatory and racist remarks on a porn website.

The media outlet reported among the comments, Robinson described himself as a “black Nazi” and described how he used to go “peeping” on women at a public gym when he was 14 and expressing support for reinstating slavery on a pornographic website Nude Africa.

From the beginning, the lieutenant governor denied these alleged comments, calling the report lies. In his lawsuit, Robinson is seeking $50 million in damages from CNN.

The lawsuit claims that CNN got their information from a dubious source and should have known the posts were created from hacked information found on the dark web. Robinson also called the lawsuit a hit piece and claimed it amounted to election interference.

ABC News hasn’t independently verified the story, but CNN has stood by its reporting.

Several of his campaign staffers resigned after the report came out.

“When times of trouble come in, there’s this thing we call politics,” Robinson said Tuesday. “It separates the strong folks from the weak. Weak will turn and run, and the strong will stand and fight. And that’s what we’re doing here today. We’re standing and fighting regardless of who turned and ran away from us, regardless of who doesn’t believe us, regardless of who goes, we know what the truth is.”

This all comes just three weeks before the election. Before the CNN story, Robinson has been behind in the polls against Josh Stein in the race for state governor.

The Republican Governor’s Association stopped ad buys. The lieutenant governor said Tuesday he is shifting his strategy to move to more door-to-door contacts and still believes he can win the race.

In the lawsuit, Robinson said his personal and professional life has been devastated, and he has been humiliated by the CNN story.

ABC11 reached out to CNN, who declined to comment.

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