Mark Robinson Hospitalized After Incident at Campaign Event

Republican North Carolina gubernatorial candidate and Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson was hospitalized Friday night following a campaign event in the Tar Heel State’s city of Mount Airy.

In an email to Newsweek Friday night, Mike Lonergan, Robinson’s campaign communications director, said that the lieutenant governor was being treated for second-degree burns at Northern Regional Hospital.

“He is in good spirits, appreciates the outpouring of well wishes, and is excited to return to the campaign trail as scheduled first thing [Saturday] morning,” read a later statement from Robinson’s campaign, which was shared with Newsweek.

NewsNation reporter Libbey Dean first reported that two sources familiar with the matter told her that Robinson left the event “quickly” and was still in the hospital.

Robinson has been facing pressure while running for the state governor seat after CNN alleged in a report last week that the Republican candidate, endorsed by former President Donald Trump, made sexist and racist remarks on a porn website’s message board from 2008 to 2012. Among the posts Robinson is accused of making include calling himself a “black NAZI” and talking about his affinity for transgender pornography.

Robinson has denied the allegations, saying he intends to remain in the gubernatorial race. On Tuesday, his campaign announced that it was hiring a law firm “to lead the efforts to investigate the outrageous lies from CNN’s latest smear” of the lieutenant governor.

Robinson added in a post to X, formerly Twitter, that he is “confident that Binnall Law Group will leave no stone unturned and enable us to use every legal means to hold CNN accountable for their lies.”

The New York Times reported earlier this week that several senior members of Robinson’s office plan to resign on October 1 in light of the allegations, including his chief of staff and general counsel, Brian LiVechhi; his policy director, Jonathan Harris; his director of communications, John Wesley Waugh; and his director of government affairs, Nathan Lewis.

Several of Robinson’s senior campaign staffers also resigned last weekend, including his top campaign consultant, Conrad Pogorzelski, who confirmed his plans to the Times.

Trump, who previously praised Robinson as “Martin Luther King on Steroids,” has not spoken publicly about how he believes Robinson should deal with the scandal. During a news conference at Trump Tower in New York City on Thursday, the former president was asked if he planned to withdraw his endorsement for Robinson, to which Trump said, “Uh, I don’t know the situation.”

When asked if Trump’s campaign is concerned that the allegations against Robinson could hurt the Republican nominee’s chances in North Carolina’s presidential race, a spokesperson for the state Republican Party told Newsweek that Trump’s team “feels good about its position.”

“Every day between now and November 5 is about making phone calls, knocking on doors, and getting our voters to the polls,” Matt Mercer, communications director for North Carolina’s GOP, said in an email Friday evening.

Update 09/26/24, 11:37 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional comment from Robinson’s campaign.