As controversy swirled around North Carolina's Republican embattled gubernatorial nominee, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump chose not to mention him during a rally in the state over the weekend.
But Newsmax has learned that the former president's North Carolina team was warned twice in the last six months by a prominent GOP operative in the state to keep him "as far away from Robinson as you can" because of the controversy surrounding him that was about to erupt.
A month ago, Newsmax was told that the same operative informed the North Carolina Trumpsters to "run the other way" from Robinson. Last week, the story broke that Robinson posted outrageous and salacious comments — including that he was "a Black Nazi" — on a pornographic site from 2011-12.
Robinson, who has insisted he is in the race to stay, said the posts attributed to him on the "Nude Africa" site were false and likened himself to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' response that charges of sexual harassment during his confirmation hearings were "the high-tech lynching of an uppity Black man who thinks for himself."
Under Tar Heel State election law, the deadline passed last Thursday for removing Robinson's name from the ballot.
Several Republicans who spoke to Newsmax said they worry a big loss by Robinson to a Democrat nominee could endanger Trump's chances of carrying North Carolina as well as the chances of GOP Attorney General nominee Dan Bishop.
A new New York Times/Siena College poll showed Trump barely edging Democrat presidential nominee Kamala Harris by 49% to 47% among likely voters.
For his part, Trump has steadfastly refused to pull his support from the candidate he once hailed as "Martin Luther King on steroids."
Trump has a record of standing by Republicans under fire for alleged personal misbehavior, notably Alabama Republican Senate nominee Roy Moore in 2017 and Georgia Senate hopeful Herschel Walker in 2022.
Robinson has long faced backlash for controversial statements and posts he made online, including his view that he and his fellow Blacks should pay reparations to white people for freeing them from slavery.
He further said that Black gangs and Planned Parenthood did more than the Ku Klux Klan to "eradicate the Black race."
"This whole deal with Robinson was totally avoidable," said Marc Rotterman, veteran Raleigh, North Carolina, conservative activist and policy analyst. "It's called doing opposition research on the principal. Robinson's candidacy was entirely consultant-driven. It was political malpractice and it was a disservice to North Carolina Republicans."
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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