Lindsey Graham shocked by beyond unnerving racism, sexism allegations against NC pol Mark Robinson

Sen.Lindsey Graham on Sunday said he is shocked by the “beyond unnerving” accusations against neighboring North Carolina gubernatorial hopeful and fellow GOPer Mark Robinson.“If they’re true, he’s unfit to serve for office,” the South Carolina pol bluntly told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “If they’re not true, he has the best lawsuit in the history of the country for libel.”Last week, Robinson, North Carolina’s first black lieutenant governor in the swing presidential state, denied a story from CNN claiming he made incendiary sexual and racially charged posts in the message board of the porn site Nude Africa between 2008 and 2012.Among the litany of claims were accusations that Robinson fashioned himself as a “Black Nazi,” said, “Slavery is not bad…I wish they would bring it back” and recalled “peeping” in on women in the shower of a gym when he was a teenager.

Robinson blasted the report as “salacious tabloid trash” in a firm denial.“Let me reassure you, the things that you will see in that story, those are not the words of Mark Robinson,” he said, vowing to stay in the race.Many top Republicans have echoed Graham’s sentiment that these are merely accusations against Robinson.

But Graham also added, “He needs to do more, in my view.“He has a right to defend himself.

He has an obligation to defend himself.This is hanging over his campaign.

He’s a political zombie if he does not offer a defense to this that’s credible.”Republican vice presidential hopeful JD Vance, asked by an NBC reporter about the scandal, said of Robinson, “I don’t believe him, I don’t not believe him.“I just think that you have to sometimes let these things play out in the court of public opinion,” Vance said.The bombshell story rocked Republicans in North Carolina, where Robinson has long been trailing in the contest for governor.North Carolina is widely seen as one of the top seven battleground states in the presidential co...