RALEIGH, NC (AP) — North Carolina’s Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson vowed on Thursday to stay in the race, despite a CNN report He posted strongly worded racist and sexual comments in an online forum and declared that he would not allow himself to be pressured into resigning by “salacious lies from the tabloid press.”

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 the first black governor of North Carolina, had sharply attacked civil rights activist 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.

Media have already reported on a 2021 Speech by Robinson in a church in which he used the word “filth” when talking 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 have already contributed to the prospect that campaigning for Robinson would hurt former President Donald Trump’s ability 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 show Stein leading Robinson by about 10 percentage points.

Stein and his allies have repeatedly cited a 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 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 deadline for withdrawal late Thursday. The state’s Republican leaders could then choose a replacement candidate.

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 team appears to be distancing itself from Robinson following the report. In a statement to AP, Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said the Republican candidate’s campaign is “focused on winning the White House and saving this country,” calling North Carolina “a critical part of that plan.”

Leavitt then compared Trump’s economic record to Harris’s, but did not mention Robinson by name or answer questions about whether he would appear with Trump at a campaign rally in Wilmington on Saturday or whether he had been invited.

A spokesman for Harris’ campaign, Ammar Moussa, said on X that “Donald Trump has a Mark Robinson problem” and reposted a photo of the two together.

The North Carolina Republican Party defended Robinson in a statement on X, saying his rejection of the CNN report will not stop the left from demonizing him through personal attacks. The party cited economic and immigration policy as the dominant campaign issues that North Carolinians are more likely to care about.

“The Left wants this election to be a personality contest, not a policy contest, because when voters focus on policy, Republicans win on Election Day,” the party said.

Scott Lassiter, a Republican candidate for state Senate in a Raleigh-area swing district, called on Robinson to “suspend his campaign to give a high-profile candidate the opportunity to finish this race.”

Ed Broyhill, a member of the Republican National Committee from North Carolina, said he spoke with Robinson Thursday afternoon and continues to support him as a candidate. In an interview, Broyhill suggested the online information could be fake.

“It seems like a dirty trick to me,” Broyhill said.

On Capitol Hill, U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina, chairman of the House Republican Campaign Committee, told reporters the report’s findings were “troubling.” Robinson, he said, needs to provide some reassurance in the state.

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.

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Associated Press writer Meg Kinnard in Chapin, South Carolina, and congressional correspondent Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed to this report.