Trump withdraws his support, Republicans cut funding for “black Nazi” Mark Robinson

Donald Trump and the Republican Party are dropping their scandal-plagued candidate for North Carolina governor, Mark Robinson.

Robinson is struggling to keep his head above water after being accused of calling himself a “black Nazi” and making other offensive comments on a porn website.

But it appears that the national GOP leadership is ready to let him go under. The Republican Governors Association announced in a statement that it was withdrawing financial support for Robinson.

“We do not comment on internal strategy or investment decisions, but we can confirm what is publicly known – our current media buy in North Carolina expires tomorrow and no further placements have been made,” said Courtney Alexander, communications director at RGA.

“RGA remains committed to electing Republican governors across the country,” he added, presumably with the exception of North Carolina.

According to CNN, the RGA and its PAC had spent nearly $16 million on the North Carolina gubernatorial campaign as of Tuesday. As a close race in a swing state, it had become one of the most expensive campaigns in the country, but the RGA's withdrawal will affect Robinson's ability to pay for ads in the home stretch.

Because the swing state is crucial to the outcome of the presidential election—North Carolina has been a staunch Republican since Barack Obama last won there in 2008—the Republican Party is all too aware of the detrimental effect bad publicity in the gubernatorial race could have on Trump's chances.

Trump won the Tar Heels state by 75,000 votes in 2020 and must win it in 2024. But a New York Times-Sienna College poll released Monday suggests his lead over Harris has shrunk to 49 percent, while Harris has 47 percent, making the race much more exciting than he would like.

A telltale sign that the Trump-Vance campaign team has abandoned the Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina: Both men visited the state in recent days without uttering a word of support.

Trump once compared Robinson to Martin Luther King, but did not mention him once at a rally in North Carolina on Saturday. At his campaign rally in Charlotte on Monday, JD Vance deflected questions about the scandal but made it clear that Robinson was on his own.

“I think it's up to Mark Robinson to make it clear to the people of North Carolina that those were not his statements, and I'll let him do that,” he told reporters.

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp also distanced himself from Robinson. His spokesman said he would not support the North Carolina gubernatorial candidate, despite attending a fundraiser for him last month.

In his home country, the exodus continued: senior members of his team, including the campaign manager, a senior adviser, and the heads of policy and fundraising, all resigned.

However, the North Carolina Republican Party continues to stand by its man and insists that he has denied the allegations.

Among the comments Robinson allegedly made on a website over a decade ago was a message about how he “strayed” women at a gym as a teenager.

He refused to elaborate on the allegations and attacked CNN, the network that first published the comments, saying: “You want to focus on the tabloid garbage, and frankly, I'm sick of it. Every time I stand in front of you, I'm going to interrupt you and tell you that you need to get back to focusing on the issues that people care about.”