CNN
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Several high-ranking officials of Republican Mark Robinson’s North Carolina gubernatorial campaign have resigned just days after a CNN report exposed inflammatory comments the candidate made on a porn website.

Robinson’s campaign announced Sunday evening that general counsel and senior adviser Conrad Pogorzelski III, campaign manager Chris Rodriguez, finance director Heather Whillier and deputy campaign manager Jason Rizk have resigned from the campaign. Pogorzelski confirmed the news to CNN.

“The reports that I and others have resigned from the campaign of their own accord are true,” he said in a statement to CNN.

Pogorzelski also named other officials who had left the campaign: Deputy Finance Director Caroline Winchester, Political Director John Kontoulas, Political Director Jackson Lohrer and Chief of Operations Patrick Riley.

The departures come in the wake of a CNN report that exposed inflammatory comments the lieutenant governor and Republican gubernatorial candidate made on a porn website message board over a decade ago. The offensive comments included Robinson calling himself a “black Nazi” and saying he “strayed” women at a public gym as a 14-year-old.

Robinson has made numerous inflammatory statements in the past, but the message board posts that have recently come to light go a step further.

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

The Republican candidate for governor in North Carolina reacts to the CNN report about his disturbing comments on a porn forum

The comments, many of which were gratuitously sexual and offensive in nature, were made under the username minisoldr, a nickname Robinson frequently used online. CNN was able to identify the username as Robinson by matching a litany of biographical details and a shared email address between the two.

Robinson’s posts included comments on issues such as race, gender and abortion. In some, he called himself a “black NAZI!” and advocated for the reinstatement of slavery. In others, he discussed his penchant for transgender pornography – despite a recent history of anti-transgender rhetoric.

In an interview with CNN on Thursday, Robinson repeatedly denied making the comments on Nude Africa.

“That’s not us. That’s not our words. And that’s not something that’s typical of me,” Robinson said. When presented with the litany of evidence linking him to the username on Nude Africa, Robinson said, “I’m not going to go into detail about how someone constructed these salacious tabloid lies.”

Despite the controversy so far, the North Carolina Republican Party stands behind its candidate and issued a statement of support on Thursday.

Check out Trump’s previous comments about the GOP’s Mark Robinson

“Mark Robinson has categorically denied CNN’s allegations, but that will not stop the left from demonizing him through personal attacks. The left needs this election to be a personality contest, not a policy contest, because when voters focus on policy, Republicans win on Election Day,” the NCGOP said in a statement Thursday – just hours before the deadline for a candidate to withdraw from the state.

Since the CNN report, some Republicans in North Carolina have put pressure on Robinson to withdraw his candidacy – even though the deadline for him to officially withdraw from the state’s candidacy has already passed. Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign has also sought to exploit Robinson’s connection to former President Donald Trump in a new ad.

The offensive posts were removed from the pornographic website Nude Africa on Thursday, CNN’s KFILE reported. It is unclear whether the comments were removed by Robinson or Nude Africa administrators. Neither the Robinson campaign nor Nude Africa responded to CNN’s requests for comment.

In a statement announcing his departure, Robinson reiterated his intention to stay in the race: “Polls have consistently underestimated Republican support in North Carolina for multiple election cycles. With a large portion of voters still undecided as we continue to ramp up our efforts across the state, I am confident our campaign remains in a strong position to make our case to voters and win on November 5.”

Robinson was nowhere to be seen at Trump’s rally in the Tar Heel State on Saturday. The Trump campaign did not invite Robinson to the rally in Wilmington, and the former president did not mention the lieutenant governor in his remarks.

Trump has always praised Robinson. At a campaign rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, in March, Trump said he heard Robinson’s speech on the plane and called him “Martin Luther King on steroids.”

“I said, ‘I think you’re better than Martin Luther King. I think you’re Martin Luther King times two,'” Trump said at the time.

This story has been updated with additional reporting.

CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski, Em Steck and Eric Bradner contributed to this report.