By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-09-22 20:05:53 | Updated at 2024-09-30 15:32:48
1 week ago
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Stein is placing the blame on Donald Trump for helping embattled North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson clinch the Republican nomination for governor.
Meanwhile, Trump's running mate Sen. J.D. Vance, responding for the first time to the bombshell CNN report, said it's not up to him whether Robinson should continue in his gubernatorial race.
He also cast doubt on the allegations and said he's holding judgment until they are proven true.
'The allegations are pretty far out there, of course, but I know that allegations aren't necessarily reality,' Vance told NBC Philadelphia on Saturday.
He added it's 'ultimately up to Mark Robinson and North Carolina whether he's going to be their governor and whether he wants to stay in the race.'
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson is facing increasing pressure to drop his bid to be governor amid allegations of highly inappropriate and racist comments on a porn forum
Stein said on Sunday that Trump and others who helped Robinson's rise should be held responsible at the ballot box in November for boosting the candidate who allegedly called himself a 'black Nazi' and a 'perv.'
A bipartisan group of voices spoke up on Sunday, calling out Robinson for his vulgar and shocking comments made on pornographic forum Nude Africa.
'The charges are beyond unnerving,' Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in an interview with NBC's Meet the Press host Kristen Welker on Sunday. 'If they're true, he's unfit to serve for office. If they're not true, he has the best lawsuit in the history of the country for libel.'
Meanwhile, Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) said the latest report from CNN is 'great news for Democrats.'
'I mean, Robinson is the new dream candidate to run against,' he told Welker in his own Sunday morning interview.
'Back in 2018 I thought Scott Wagner was the dream candidate we could run, and we smoked him by 17 points. And then of course Doug Mastriano came on in '22,' Fetterman said, listing some previous GOP candidates that were beaten by Democrats.
'But then Robinson's like, 'Hey, hold my beer.' And now of course Trump's not going to walk back, just because he's never going to admit what a disaster that is,' the Pennsylvania Senator concluded.
Fetterman said he isn't sure it will impact the presidential race in November, but said it 'would be wonderful, and almost [a] ball game if Harris wins North Carolina.'
'She's made North Carolina competitive already,' he said of Vice President Kamala Harris. 'And then after Robinson, now we're in the best possible situation to win.'
Meanwhile, the man running against Robinson for a residence at the North Carolina Governor's Mansion said it is Trump and others on the 2024 ticket that should face the consequences for backing Robinson.
Sen. J.D. Vance says it's up to Robinson whether he remains in the gubernatorial race in North Carolina and says he isn't levying judgment until allegations are proven true
Josh Stein is running as the Democrat in North Carolina's gubernatorial race and says Robinson is only on the ballot because of Donald Trump's backing
'Robinson exists because Donald Trump has lifted him up,' Stein told CNN State of the Union host Jake Tapper on Sunday.
'Candidates up and down the ballot in North Carolina need to be held accountable for supporting Mark Robinson and being part of his entire campaign,' he continued. 'They have been supporting him and now it looks like folks want to run away from him.'
'But Mark Robinson could not exist without the support of Donald Trump.'
The Trump campaign has distanced itself from the Lt. Gov. in recent days. He did not appear at a rally with Sen. J.D. Vance in Raleigh last week, which he was originally scheduled to attend, and was not at a North Carolina rally for Trump on Saturday.
