RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson said Thursday he will stay in the race despite CNN reporting that he posted strongly worded racist and sexual comments in an online forum, and said he will not be pressured into resigning by “offensive tabloid lies.”

Robinson, the incumbent lieutenant governor who easily won the Republican primary for governor in March, trailed Democratic candidate and current Attorney General Josh Stein in several recent polls.

“We’re staying in the race. We’re in it to win,” Robinson said in a video posted on social media platform X on Thursday. “And we know that with your help, we can do it.”

In the video, Robinson referenced a story he said aired on CNN, but did not provide any details.

“I can assure you that the things you will see in this story are not the words of Mark Robinson,” he said. “You know my words. You know my character.”

The CNN report describes a series of racist and sexual comments that Robinson posted on a porn website’s message board over a decade ago.

CNN reported that Robinson, who would later become North Carolina’s first black governor, used harsh language to attack civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and once called himself a “black NAZI.”

CNN also reported that Robinson wrote that he was aroused by memories of “peeping” women in gym showers at age 14 and by his penchant for transgender pornography. Robinson once referred to himself as a “pervert,” according to CNN.

The Associated Press has not independently confirmed that Robinson wrote and posted the messages. CNN said it matched the details of the account on the porn website forum to other online accounts owned by Robinson by comparing usernames, a known email address and his full name.

CNN reported that the details provided by the account holder matched Robinson’s age, length of marriage and other biographical information, and compared phrases that frequently appeared on his public Twitter profile with those used in the account’s discussions on the pornographic website.

The media has already reported on a speech Robinson gave at a church in 2021 in which he used the word “filth” in connection with the discussion about gays and transgender people.

Robinson has made inflammatory comments in the past that Stein said made him too extreme to carry North Carolina. They had already contributed to the prospect that Robinson’s campaign would hurt former President Donald Trump’s bid to win the swing state’s 16 electoral votes, as well as potential other Republican candidates on the downballot.

Recent polls of North Carolina voters show Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris in a neck-and-neck race. The same polls showed Stein leading Robinson by about 10 percentage points.

Stein and his allies have repeatedly cited a 2019 Facebook post in which Robinson said abortion in America was about “killing the child because you weren’t responsible enough to keep your skirt down.”

Following the report, the Stein campaign team issued a statement saying: “The people of North Carolina already know that Mark Robinson is completely unfit for the office of governor.”

State law allows a candidate for governor to withdraw his or her candidacy no later than one day before the first mail-in ballots requested by military members and voters overseas are distributed, which begins Friday, leaving the withdrawal period late Thursday evening.

Trump has repeatedly expressed his support for Robinson, who is considered a rising star in his party and is known for his fiery speeches and powerful rhetoric. Before the March primary, Trump called Robinson “Martin Luther King on steroids” at a rally in Greensboro because of his oratory skills.

Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reporting. Representatives of the Republican candidate’s campaign also did not immediately answer questions about why Robinson was not with vice presidential candidate JD Vance at his campaign event in Raleigh on Wednesday and whether Robinson would be with Trump in Wilmington on Saturday.

Robinson, 56, was elected lieutenant governor in 2020 in his first run for public office. He tells a life story of childhood poverty, jobs he blames on the North American Free Trade Agreement, and personal bankruptcies. His four-minute speech to the Greensboro City Council, in which he defended gun rights and lamented the “demonization” of police officers, went viral – earning him a board position at the National Rifle Association and popularity among conservative voters.