Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign has ramped up its efforts to tie former President Donald Trump to North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson, whose recent scandal involving explicit online comments has shaken his campaign. As the race for the presidency heats up, Harris’ team is capitalizing on the controversy to win key swing states, including North Carolina.
At a press conference in Trump Tower on Thursday, Trump sidestepped questions about whether he would rescind his endorsement of Robinson following revelations about the Lieutenant Governor’s alleged involvement in inappropriate online posts. “I don’t know the situation,” Trump remarked before moving on to other questions.
The CNN report linked Robinson to comments posted on a pornography forum. In one of the posts Robinson identified himself as a “black NAZI!” He also expressed support for slavery in his posts. Despite Robinson’s strong denials, the report has led to the resignation of several of his staff members and a growing backlash from the Republican establishment.
Ammar Moussa, spokesperson for the Harris campaign, responded sharply to Trump’s indifference: “It’s impossible to believe that, somehow, Donald Trump missed the news about his handpicked candidate for governor calling himself a ‘Nazi.’”
Harris’ campaign has intensified its focus on Trump’s relationship with Robinson in hopes of gaining an edge in North Carolina, a critical battleground state. “There’s an unlikely star in Kamala Harris’ push to win North Carolina: Mark Robinson,” ABC 11 reported. Volunteers are emphasizing Robinson’s controversial remarks and Trump’s continued support of him to North Carolina voters, particularly as Robinson’s allies have begun to abandon him. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican member of the Republican Governors Association, publicly withdrew his support this week.
Despite Robinson being praised by Trump in the past as “one of the great leaders in our country,” Trump has conspicuously avoided mentioning him at recent campaign stops in North Carolina. This omission has not gone unnoticed. “Democrats aren’t making it so easy for Trump to distance himself,” reported ABC 11, pointing out that the Harris campaign continues to highlight Trump’s endorsement of Robinson.
In a press conference in New York on Thursday, Trump addressed various issues but spent a significant portion attacking Harris, falsely blaming her for immigration failures and making false claims. “She lost 325,000 children, and they’re either dead, being sold into sex slavery or just plain missing,” Trump alleged, baselessly linking Harris to the deaths and disappearances of children at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Trump’s claims have been widely debunked, as they appear to be based on misinterpretations of an August report from the Department of Homeland Security, which noted that 32,000 migrant children missed their scheduled immigration court hearings, but there is no evidence to support Trump’s allegations.
In the same press conference, Trump also discussed mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, pledging to implement a strategy reminiscent of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s “Operation Wetback.” “This will be much larger than that, but we will get rid of the drug dealers, human traffickers, and murderers,” Trump declared.
North Carolina is shaping up to be a key battleground in the 2024 election, with the state emerging as one of the most competitive. While Trump held North Carolina by just 1.3 percentage points in 2020, Harris’ team hopes that Robinson’s troubles will give Democrats the edge they need to flip the state’s 16 electoral votes.
However, some Harris campaign insiders fear that even Robinson’s implosion may not be enough to deliver North Carolina to the Democratic side. A volunteer named Vernon Daughtry expressed hope that the scandal could still impact the race. “I hope he brings Trump down,” Daughtry said of Robinson.
Despite these concerns, Harris’ campaign is confident that its emphasis on Robinson will resonate with voters, particularly among North Carolina’s suburban, college-educated population and growing Hispanic and African American communities. These demographics could be decisive in a state where no Democrat has won since Barack Obama’s victory in 2008.
As the Robinson controversy continues to unfold, it remains to be seen how much of an impact it will have on Trump’s standing in North Carolina, but Harris’ campaign is leaving no stone unturned in its efforts to leverage the scandal to their advantage.