CNN
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The top aide to embattled North Carolina lieutenant governor Mark Robinson is set to resign following a CNN KFile report that Robinson made inflammatory and racist remarks on a site’s forum Pornographic web.
Brian LiVecchi, Robinson’s chief of staff and general counsel, will resign in the coming week, according to a source familiar with the matter. His departure is the latest in a series of high-profile resignations by Robinson staffers following the CNN report last week.
Robinson, the Republican candidate for governor of North Carolina, has already lost most of his campaign staff when he resigned Sunday, including his campaign manager, his deputy campaign manager, his finance director, as well as his senior adviser and general consultant.
The New York Times and WRAL reported Wednesday that Robinson’s political director, communications director and government affairs director had also resigned. CNN contacted these staff members but did not receive a response.
Robinson announced a new chief of staff on X Thursday morning, saying he had elevated Krishana Polite, his deputy chief of staff, to the top job.
Robinson’s lewd comments included describing himself as a “black Nazi”, describing how he used to “stare” at women in a public gymnasium when he was 14, and expressing support for the reestablishment of slavery on the pornographic site Nude Africa.
Robinson listed his full name on his profile for Nude Africa, along with an email address that he used on numerous websites across the Internet for decades.
In an interview with CNN last week, Robinson repeatedly denied making the comments about Nude Africa.
“It’s not us. These are not our words. And that’s not something that characterizes me,” Robinson said. Faced with the litany of evidence linking him to the username on Nude Africa, Robinson said: “I’m not going to go into the details of how anyone made this up, these salacious tabloid lies.”
