CNN
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Offensive posts by North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson were removed from the pornographic website Nude Africa on Thursday, hours after a CNN KFile investigation revealed a series of inflammatory comments posted on the forum by the controversial and socially conservative Republican candidate for North Carolina governor.

It is unclear whether the comments were deleted by Robinson or Nude Africa administrators. Neither the Robinson campaign nor Nude Africa responded to CNN’s inquiries.

Robinson denies making the comments, which were made between 2008 and 2012 — prior to his entry into politics and his current term as lieutenant governor — and which conflict with his public positions on issues including abortion and transgender rights.

Robinson listed his full name on his profile for Nude Africa, a pornographic website with a message board and an email address that he used on numerous Internet sites for decades.

Many of the comments were gratuitously sexual and obscene in nature and were made under the username minisoldr, a moniker Robinson often used online. CNN was able to identify the username as Robinson by matching a string of biographical details and a shared email address between the two.

Robinson commented on issues of race, gender, and abortion in posts. In some posts, he called himself a “black NAZI!” and expressed support for the reinstatement of slavery. In other posts, he discussed his affinity for transgender pornography, despite a recent history of anti-transgender rhetoric.

The revelations have fueled pressure on Robinson, who is currently in a competitive race against Democrat Josh Stein to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, to drop out of the race. But the deadline under state law for Robinson to remove his name from the ballot passed Thursday without him doing so, and the state’s first mail ballots were set to be mailed out Friday.

The swing state is a target for former President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.

While Harris’ campaign quickly tried to link Trump to Robinson by posting photos of the two together on social media, Trump’s campaign declined to say Thursday whether Robinson should withdraw from the governor’s race.

“President Trump’s campaign is focused on winning the White House and saving this country, and North Carolina is a vital part of that plan,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told CNN in a statement that did not immediately comment on the reports.

“We are confident that if voters compare Trump’s record of a strong economy, low inflation, a secure border and safe streets to the Biden-Harris failures, President Trump will win the Tarheel State again. We will not take our eyes off the ball,” Leavitt continued.

The former president endorsed Robinson earlier this year at an event in North Carolina, where he described Robinson as “Martin Luther King on steroids.”