An email address connected North Carolina’s Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, an anti-LGBTQ+ Republican who is running for state governor, was previously used to register accounts on dating websites — including Ashley Madison, Adult Friend Finder, Mate 1, Fling, and the now-defunct website Lords Of Porno — during a time when Robinson was married to his now wife Politico reports. The use of the sites is notable considering Robinson’s self-styling as a Christian conservative who accuses others of immoral sexual promscuity.
Robinson’s alleged extramarital use of dating websites follows a bombshell CNN report detailing racist, antisemitic, and sexual admissions that Robinson wrote between 2008 and 2012 on Nude Africa, a porn website. In several comments, Robinson bragged about cheating on his wife in threesomes with his sister-in-law.
Robinson has denied writing the comments, insinuated that artificial intelligence was used to used to fabricate them and pledged to sue CNN for its reporting. However, Robinson has reportedly rejected tech experts’ offers to investigate the posts’ origins and he has not yet filed any lawsuit against CNN.
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The political news site Politico reviewed account data associated with Robinson’s email address that had been hacked from multiple websites and posted on the dark web. The data showed that the IP address listed with Robinson’s Nude Africa account was located in the Piedmont Triad region of North Carolina where he lived during the 2008 – 2012 time period.
Additionally, leaked database files from other website breaches show that Robinson’s email address was registered on Adult Friend Finder, Fling, Mate 1, a now-defunct website Lords Of Porno, and Ashley Madison, a website for people looking for extramarital sexual encountrers. The web data provided no evidence that Robinson had recently logged into any of the aforementioned websites.
Mike Lonergan, Robinson’s spokesperson, denied that Robinson had “ever created or used an account on any of these websites.” He also said that Robinson is hiring lawyers to look into reports of his email being used to create the websites’ accounts.
“Lt. Gov. Robinson is in the process of retaining aggressive legal counsel to investigate who did this and how; we will leave no stone unturned, and will use every legal means to hold CNN and whomever else is involved accountable,” Lonergan said.
As of yet, Robinson hasn’t filed any lawsuits connected to reports of his online activity. He has also reportedly rejected multiple offers to connect him with information technology specialists to help substantiate his claims of digital fraud, WRAL reported, citing “people directly familiar with the matter.”
Robinson denied making Nude Africa comments and insinuated that they were somehow AI-generated. His claim is likely a lie since it’s unheard of for the technology to create online comments timestamped from over a decade ago while using a person’s private accounts.
“Look, I’m not going to get into the minutia about how somebody manufactured these salacious tabloid lies, but I can tell you this: There’s been over one million dollars spent on me through AI by a billionaire’s son who’s bound and determined to destroy me,” Robinson told CNN last week. “The things that people can do with the Internet now is incredible. But what I can tell you is this: Again, these are not my words. This is simply tabloid trash being used as a distraction from the substantive issues that the people of this state are facing.”
Eight high-profile staffers from Robinson’s campaign resigned the weekend after CNN published its report, including his senior adviser, campaign manager, and finance director. The depatures left his campaign with just three people, WUNC reported: two campaign spokespeople and a bodyguard.
The Republican Governors Association and its super PAC have stopped purchasing ads to aid Robinson’s campaign. Now, with just 43 days left until the election, Robinson has no TV ads scheduled, according to the ad tracking firm AdImpact. His opponent, Democratic state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, has booked $13 million worth of ads for the coming weeks.
Robinson is largely expected to lose his bid to become the state’s next governor. Even before the CNN report, he was trailing behind Shapiro in most polls. The most recent polls show Robinson trailing by double digits.
Robinson—who was recently accused of regularly patronizing state porn shops—has previously said that school shootings are God’s punishment for abortions. In 1989, he paid for his then-girlfriend to get an abortion. He has since called that abortion “a mistake.”
Robinson has called reports of the Holocaust “hogwash” and implied that the widely accepted figure of 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust is false. He also agreed with a podcast host in 2019 that Jewish bankers are one of the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,” along with Muslims, China and the CIA.
Robinson has also said that he considers LGBTQ+ people as “filthy” “demons” who “mentally rape” children. Among his many anti-LGBTQ+ statements, he has called homosexuality “an abominable sin,” has compared LGBTQ+ people to cow dung, and Satanic demons, and said trans people should defecate on public street corners outside rather than using bathrooms matching their gender identity. He has also made numerous racist and antisemitic comments.
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