‘No shame in coming out’: Mark Robinson talks porn ‘obsession,’ political loss in new interview

Former Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson’s gubernatorial ambitions effectively ended in 2024 after a news report alleged that he made racist and lewd comments on a pornographic website. In a new interview, released Thursday, he says he has an obsession with pornography and sex, and he wants to use his experience as a lesson for young men.

“I don't know where that fascination came from in my life, but that's something that followed me as a young man, this obsession with pornography,” Robinson, the North Carolina Republican who lost in a lopsided race to Democrat Josh Stein, said in an episode of After The Call, a podcast produced by an organization called Real Truth Media. 

He added: “There is no shame in coming out of it. You know, there's no shame in a drug addict coming out of being a drug addict or alcoholic. There's no shame in someone who was once a thief who no longer steals. The shame is staying in it. And that's what we've got to get our young men to start seeing how damaging that type of lifestyle is.”

The 90-minute interview comes about a year and a half after CNN reported that Robinson, using an alias, referred to himself as a “Black Nazi,” called civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. a racial slur and called for the reinstatement of slavery in the comments section of a pornographic site called Nude Africa. The account CNN connected to Robinson also appeared to have made a number of highly explicit sexual comments on the site. The posts were made long before he entered public office. 

He denied the allegations at the time, telling supporters they were lies stirred up by the media to tank his political career. “This is not anything that is characteristic of me, nor has it ever been,” Robinson told CNN in 2024. “The people here of North Carolina know I have been completely transparent about my history. This is simply tabloid trash.”

After the report aired, Robinson sued the news network for defamation, but he didn’t offer any substantive evidence to support his claim that the posts could have been the result of a data breach. Robinson ultimately dropped the lawsuit and intimated that he would quit politics — a stunning reversal for a man once seen as a rising star in national conservative politics.

In the new podcast, he acknowledged that his previous denials weren’t entirely true. He cried the night he learned CNN was about to report on him, he said.

“I won't say that I completely lied,” Robinson told podcast host Josh Hall. “Some of the things about the whole story — there's some truth to it.”

Robinson acknowledged he was obsessed with pornography and “was involved with people that watched pornography.” Robinson previously denied allegations he was a regular at a Greensboro porn shop. The allegations were made by a former employee of the shop who said Robinson was a regular. Robinson previously called the man a liar, saying the claims were “Democratic activist fan fiction.”

Robinson said of his porn habits: “I've never admitted in public. I've never admitted to my wife.”

In the new interview, Robinson continued to cast doubt on whether he was the one who had written the comments associated with the Nude Africa account. He had previously suggested that someone with knowledge of how he writes online could have copied his style in an elaborate attempt to frame him years before his political career began. Robinson doubled down on that defense in the podcast.

“There was enough meat on the bone from conversations that I'd had with people, long before I became lieutenant governor, to make those things possible for them to be crafted,” Robinson said. “I certainly count them as things that people may have falsely attributed to me, but I don't deny the fact that at some point I said enough salacious things where they could certainly make it seem as so.”

After the election

Robinson also reflected on the months following his blowout loss to Stein. It was a time of immense loneliness, Robinson said, as he stewed alone in his home, far from the rallies that had previously drawn thousands of cheering fans.

He said he considered himself worthless, regretted letting his supporters down, and began having “real dark” thoughts.

“‘You're the biggest idiot on the planet,’” Robinson said he thought to himself. “‘You had the world laid out at your feet. But because you can't shut your mouth, and because you can't temper your tongue, and because when you were a young man, you couldn't stand up and act like what God had created you to be … it all stopped.’ And I was all by myself.”

The podcast host didn’t ask Robinson if he would consider a political comeback, and Robinson didn’t bring it up himself. He indicated he’s interested in finding ways to help other men kick or avoid the issues he’s faced with pornography.

“It's the biggest regret in my life … but at the same time I feel like, in a lot of ways, it's the biggest blessing that I've ever had,” he said. “Because now I can impart that wisdom to people.”

Robinson's background

Before becoming the state's first Black lieutenant governor — and the only Black Republican to hold any major political position in North Carolina since Reconstruction — Robinson was scraping by in blue collar jobs. He rose to political fame after a video of an impassioned gun rights speech he gave at a Greensboro City Council meeting in 2018 went viral online.

His booming oratory style and humble biography — growing up in poverty with a single mom, losing his factory job to foreign outsourcing as an adult — made him relatable to voters in a way that many other politicians can't copy.

In the podcast, Robinson spoke at length about his tumultuous childhood and connected that to some of his struggles later in life. Before his father died when Robinson was 12, he said, his mother and father were both incredibly violent with each other — with bloody fights that were impossible for him and the other kids to miss in their tiny home. One time, he said, they attacked each other repeatedly with a hammer. Another time, he said, he remembers his father drunk on the floor, his mom standing over him with a knife, and his sister urging his mother to kill his father.

“That's the kind of stuff that I grew up seeing, and it made a mark on me,” Robinson said. “ … Growing up through that time as a child, one of our refuge, the refuge we had, was fantasy.”

Later, as he drifted through life as a young man, he sought out other ways to fill the emptiness. “I'm a slacker,” he said of his young adulthood. “I'm not really doing anything with my life. How are you going to make yourself feel better? I didn't do drugs. I didn't drink. So, turn to women.”

Robinson later found religion, and the church in turn helped launch his political career. His strongest support in the 2020 and 2024 elections came from evangelical Christian voters who appreciated his fiery rhetoric about socially conservative issues.

He easily defeated a crowded Republican field in 2020 on his way to winning that year’s race for lieutenant governor, and quickly began laying the groundwork for seeking higher office. Republican President Donald Trump endorsed Robinson in the 2024 primary for governor, calling him "Martin Luther King on steroids."

But within months — and before CNN’s reporting — Trump limited his appearances with Robinson during campaign stops in North Carolina. Robinson had long been known for making public comments targeting Jews, Muslims, women, LGBTQ people and others. And some GOP insiders suspected that Trump feared Robinson's brand had become so toxic he could bring down Trump with him, at least in this one crucial presidential swing state.

The CNN story drew more attention to Robinson, leading the Republican Governor's Association — which had spent millions on ads supporting his gubernatorial campaign — and other supporters to publicly disavow Robinson and stop making donations in support of his campaign. Dozens demanded refunds for their donations.

Robinson said in the new podcast that he believes he could’ve done more to stand up for himself in 2024 and might have responded differently to the CNN reporting, but he was scared of hurting Trump’s chances as he was also on the ballot that year.

“I could have been selfish and focused on me,” Robinson said. He chose not to, he said, adding that it wasn’t the right time to do that. “You got to take everybody you're in combat with into consideration,” he said. “And the fire that you're drawing, you don't need to let it be drawn on anybody else.”