Former North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson announced via social media he is dropping his defamation lawsuit against CNN and indefinitely retiring from politics.
Robinson said the following via X tweet:
“The words of our Savior, along with the earthly reality that costly litigation and political gamesmanship by my detractors makes clear that continuing to pursue retribution from CNN is a futile effort. That is why I have asked Jesse Binnall and his legal team to terminate any continued attempt to litigate with CNN on my or my family’s behalf.”
Robinson backed up this decision in a following tweet on Friday, declaring that “the continued political persecution of my family and loved ones is a cost I am unwilling to continue to bear.”
Following his announcement of dropping the lawsuit, Robinson confirmed via X he will not run for Senate next year and does not plan to take office in the future.
Robinson’s retirement announcement marks the close of a series of events that plagued his campaign for North Carolina governor.
In September 2024, CNN published an article saying Robinson, the 2024 Republican gubernatorial candidate for North Carolina, made “a series of inflammatory comments on a pornography website’s message board over a decade ago.”
CNN says that on a pornographic website called “Nude Africa,” Robinson allegedly made comments between 2008 and 2012 where he called himself a “Black Nazi” and admitted to enjoying transgender porn and peeping on women in the showers as a teenager.
Some of the statements made on the site, according to CNN, included “I like watching tr*nny on girl porn!” and “I’m not in the KKK. They don’t let blacks join. If I was in the KKK I would have called him Martin Lucifer Koon.”
After the CNN article was published, Robinson released a video denying the news outlet’s claims and said he was committed to running for governor. However, Robinson lost the 2024 gubernatorial race to now-Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat.
In October, Robinson announced the CNN lawsuit, calling the reporting “reckless” and “defamatory.”
In November, CNN’s legal team filed to dismiss the lawsuit entirely, saying Robinson had not “adequately alleged that CNN acted with actual malice.”
In December, Robinson requested the defamation lawsuit be moved back into state court.
In his closing remarks on X Friday, Robinson said, in part:
“In closing, I say to each and every one of you, thank you! To those who have supported me and to those who have not, we are all Americans[…]”
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