Mark Robinson claims he hasn’t lost his drive to win.

The lieutenant governor of North Carolina, facing a hemorrhaging of campaign staff and national slew of horrific publicity, is vowing to rebuild his team in the race for governor after a CNN report that linked him to damaging, salacious comments about race and transgender sex.

And he said he’s “coming after CNN full throttle.”

During a campaign stop Monday in Wilkesboro, Robinson declared that he will take on CNN over the report, but also said he has a race to win first, according to WNCN in Goldsboro.

“Lt. Gov. Robinson, you’ve talked about the reporting being salacious lies, not true. Have you taken steps then to prove it’s not true?” a reporter asked.

Robinson responded, “We absolutely are.”

“You better understand, I am coming after CNN full throttle,” he said. “But we have got to put the people first. And in order to put the people first … we’ve got to concentrate on this campaign, and that is exactly what we’re going to do.”

“We are going after them. We are going to go after them for what they’ve done. But, we have five weeks left in this race, folks. Make no mistake about it. We are not going to let CNN throw us off of our mission,” Robinson said.

He also criticized the media for focusing on the CNN report amid problems like fentanyl overdoses, the open border, and the economy.

“Think about what’s going on on our border, think about what’s going on on the world stage, and this is what you choose to focus on?” he said.

His comments to reporters are below:

He said that a “lot of talented people right now are reaching out to us” to join in the campaign effort.

But that isn’t going to be easy.

Top campaign officials have left Robinson’s side, CNN reported Monday.

The Republican Governor’s Association has said it is making no further ad buys for his campaign in the Tar Heel State, according to WNCN.

Former President Donald Trump, who had endorsed Robinson, visited North Carolina for a campaign rally on Saturday but did not invite Robinson to the event, CNN reported Sunday.

According to New York Times/Sienna College polling, Robinson was already running behind Democratic candidate Josh Stein, North Carolina’s attorney general, even before the CNN story broke.

It’s safe to say the report hasn’t helped him make up ground.

CNN’s report on Thursday detailed a series of comments made on a porn site called “Nude Africa” in which a user CNN linked to Robinson describes himself as a “black Nazi” and a “perv” who enjoys transgender pornography.

CNN reported it had matched Robinson to the comments via “a litany of biographical details and a shared email address between the two.”

Robinson has denied he was behind the comments reported by CNN.

“This is not us. These are not our words. And this is not anything that is characteristic of me,” Robinson said in CNN’s Thursday report.

He did not explain how the evidence CNN used to link him to the comments might have been fabricated.

“I’m not going to get into the minutia of how somebody manufactured this, these salacious, tabloid lies,” he said.

Story Editor

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