Former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) clocked Lt. Gov Mark Robinson, the state’s GOP gubernatorial nominee, as a “ticking time bomb” on Wednesday less than a week after reports linked the candidate to a number of disturbing comments on a porn website.
McCrory, who served as the state’s governor from 2013 to 2017, was asked by CNN’s Pamela Brown whether it’s a “mistake” for Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), to stay silent and not condemn Robinson’s reported remarks on the site, which include a reference to being a “black NAZI.”
“I got a feeling about a month ago the Trump campaign was finding out that there could be some dirty laundry on Robinson,” said McCrory, who has previously asked if the controversial GOP nominee is telling North Carolinians “what they want to hear” instead of “what they need to hear.”
“But the fact of the matter is, for over two years, most of us knew this was a ticking time bomb.”
Robinson, in the wake of CNN’s bombshell report, has brushed the article off as containing “lies” and has hired a law firm to hold the network “accountable” for it.
He suggested that the years of comments may have validity at a campaign event earlier this week, declaring, “They want to talk about what possibly happened 15 years ago.”
Robinson has refused to drop out of the 2024 race over the porn scandal.
The former governor, who signed the state’s controversial transgender bathroom bill in 2016, said the Trump campaign had been “avoiding” Robinson and not letting him onstage until he “bullied his way up” roughly two weeks ago.
McCrory later declared that Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley — a former chair of the North Carolina RNC — should’ve given Trump “fair warning” that Robinson would be a “future dangerous advocate” for his campaign.
“Well, everyone’s running from him. And I think it’s a matter of time before even more information comes out,” said McCrory when asked if Trump should condemn Robinson or retract his endorsement.
Trump, who has previously described Robinson as “Martin Luther King Jr. on steroids,” didn’t mention the candidate or condemn him at a rally in North Carolina over the weekend.
McCrory pointed to resignations among Robinson’s campaign staff as well as the Republican Governors Association pulling planned advertisement spending for him.
“He’s dead in the water here in North Carolina,” said the former governor.
H/T Mediaite