(Ken Silva, Headline USA) North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson announced a lawsuit Tuesday against CNN over its recent report alleging he made explicit racial and sexual posts on a pornography website’s message board, calling the reporting reckless and defamatory.
The lawsuit, filed in Wake County Superior Court, comes less than four weeks after a television report that led many fellow GOP elected officials and candidates, including presidential nominee Donald Trump, to distance themselves from Robinson’s gubernatorial campaign. Robinson announced the lawsuit at a news conference in Raleigh.
“CNN and Louis Love Money are responsible for a new low in digital lynching,” the lawsuit stated.
“In a malicious hit job so well timed as to be uncanny, they have published disgusting lies about Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson in what appears to be a coordinated attack aimed at derailing his campaign for governor, and has already inflicted immeasurable harm to his family, his reputation, and his good name.”
Jesse Binnall is taking CNN and their buddies to task for the attacks against me and my family.
This will go down as the greatest case of election interference in our state’s history.
They are going to pay the price and we are going to win the election!
— Mark Robinson (@markrobinsonNC) October 15, 2024
CNN based its reporting on data linked to Robinson, including his name, date of birth, passwords, and the email address. But Robinson said that data had been compromised by multiple breaches.
Therefore, “Any person could have purchased and/or used Lt. Gov. Robinson’s data to create accounts all over the internet,” the lawsuit said.
“As CNN is aware, people who create accounts on websites like NudeAfrica, and AdultFriendFinder prefer not to use their own names and identities for obvious reasons,” it added.”
Today Mark Robinson announced a defamation lawsuit in response to CNN’s salacious, coordinated & disgraceful election interference smear campaign against him.
— Matt Hurley (@mhurleyofficial) October 15, 2024
CNN declined to comment, spokesperson Emily Kuhn said in an email.
Robinson, who was trailing Democrat Attorney General Josh Stein in the polls before the CNN piece, pledged last month to fight on following the scandal, reiterating that projections had “consistently underestimated Republican support in North Carolina for several cycles now and with a large portion of the electorate still undecided as we continue to ramp up our efforts across the state.”
Early in-person voting begins Thursday statewide, and well over 50,000 completed absentee ballots have been received so far.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
