CNN
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Donald Trump’s campaign declined to say Thursday whether North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who the former president once described as “Martin Luther King on steroids,” should withdraw from the race for governor in the swing state.

Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign highlighted Trump’s praise for Robinson, following a CNN report Thursday about Robinson’s history of making disturbing comments on a pornography website message board.

Robinson, a Trump ally who won the Republican nomination for governor in March, has faced mounting pressure to drop out of the race following revelations that he made comments more than a decade ago calling himself a “black Nazi” and expressing support for reinstituting slavery. Robinson has denied making those comments.

The report immediately rippled through the 2024 presidential race, where North Carolina is a target for both Trump and Harris. The deadline under state law for a candidate to withdraw is 11:59 p.m. ET on Thursday, with the state’s first mail ballots sent out Friday.

Harris’ campaign responded to the report by sharing photos of Trump and Robinson together on social media, including one in which they pose with a thumbs-up.

In another social media post, the Harris campaign shared a video in which Trump praises Robinson, calling him “one of the great leaders of our country” and calling him “better than Martin Luther King.” The campaign ran the headline of CNN’s report on the video.

Trump’s campaign did not directly respond to the reports in a statement Thursday afternoon, nor did it respond to a question about whether the former president wants Robinson to withdraw from the governor’s race.

“President Trump’s campaign is focused on winning the White House and saving this country. North Carolina is a critical part of that plan. We are confident that if voters compare Trump’s record of a strong economy, low inflation, a secure border and safe streets to the Biden-Harris failures, President Trump will win the Tarheel State again. We will not take our eyes off the ball,” Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for Trump’s campaign, told CNN.

Trump has a long history of praising Robinson. At a campaign rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, in March, Trump said he listened to Robinson while on his plane and called him “Martin Luther King on steroids.”

“I said, ‘I think you’re better than Martin Luther King. I think you’re Martin Luther King times two,'” Trump said at the time.

The NAACP called on Robinson to withdraw from the race, writing on social media Thursday that the organization “is impartial, but we are not blind. And we speak out against what is wrong. Mark Robinson: Get out.”

Robinson is currently locked in a close race against Democrat Josh Stein to succeed Democratic Governor Roy Cooper, whose term has expired.

Stein, the state’s attorney general, has led Robinson in recent polls. His campaign said in a statement Thursday: “The people of North Carolina already know that Mark Robinson is completely unfit to be governor. Josh remains focused on winning this campaign so that together we can build a safer, stronger North Carolina for everyone.”

The Democratic Governors Association also pounced on the CNN report, with spokeswoman Izzi Levy calling it “just more evidence that Mark Robinson is deranged, dangerous and completely unfit to be governor.”

“With many Republicans warning of the damage Robinson would do as governor, it’s clear that the stakes have never been higher and we must keep our feet on the gas to defeat him in November,” Levy said.

The Republican Governors Association did not respond to a request for comment on the report or whether Robinson should withdraw from the race.

North Carolina Rep. Richard Hudson, who heads the Republican campaign arm in the House of Representatives, told reporters Thursday that “the allegations were deeply troubling.”

But Hudson didn’t hesitate to push Robinson aside.

“I hope the lieutenant governor can convince the people of North Carolina that the allegations are not true,” he said.

Another North Carolina Republican, Rep. Greg Murphy, who is a member of the conservative hardliner House Freedom Caucus, also called the allegations “deeply disturbing” but expressed doubts about their authenticity.

“What I read was very disturbing, but given the degree of electronic manipulation that can happen today with AI, with everything else, who knows what’s true and what’s not,” he said.

South Carolina Rep. Ralph Norman, a member of the Freedom Caucus, told CNN the report was “pretty sad.”

“To get to this point, and then the people who supported him, all the money he raised, and I think he should withdraw today so they can get another candidate,” he said.

Norman also said Robinson should have known that previous comments on the forum would become public.

“I think he’s a different person now – obviously a lot of this has happened in the past – but in politics they’re going to find out everything, as they rightly should,” Norman said.

GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia said she wanted to read the allegations, but “if it all turns out to be true, that would certainly be something I would absolutely not be able to support.”

CNN’s Alayna Treene, Aaron Pellish, Dianne Gallagher, Annie Grayer, Morgan Rimmer, Kate Sullivan and Omar Jimenez contributed to this report.