NC Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson treated for burns after incident at campaign event
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson was treated at a hospital after an injury at a campaign event Friday night.
Mike Lonergan, communications director for Robinson’s gubernatorial campaign, told The News & Observer that Robinson was treated for burns following the incident at the Mayberry Truck Show & Parade in Mount Airy.
Lonergan said that Robinson was treated for “second-degree burns” at Northern Regional Hospital, and “is in good spirits.” He said that Robinson “appreciates the outpouring of well wishes, and is excited to return to the campaign trail as scheduled first thing tomorrow morning.”
It wasn’t immediately clear what happened at the Mount Airy event. The Washington Post reported that Robinson “burned his hand leaning against a truck” and “is fine and home now.” Lonergan did not immediately respond to additional questions Friday night.
Robinson currently has four campaign events on his schedule for Saturday, including an address at the N.C. Faith and Freedom Coalition’s annual Salt & Light Conference in the afternoon.
The truck show Friday was Robinson’s fourth scheduled campaign stop of the day, and the latest in a series of meet-and-greets and events that the embattled GOP candidate for governor has been holding this week in the aftermath of the explosive CNN report revealing lewd and racist comments Robinson allegedly made on a porn website several years ago.
Robinson, who has denied making the comments, and called them “salacious lies,” has spent the past week trying to regroup and restart his campaign as the fallout from CNN’s reporting continues.
Nearly all of his campaign staff, including a longtime political consultant, resigned on Sunday. Then on Wednesday, half of Robinson’s staff in the lieutenant governor’s office resigned as well.
In the meantime, Robinson has continued to hit the campaign trail, and hired an attorney, Jesse Binnall, to investigate the comments reported by CNN.
All of this comes as Robinson faces pressure from multiple high-profile Republicans, including key allies like U.S. Sen. Ted Budd and U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson, to prove to voters that he is not behind the comments.
U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, who endorsed one of Robinson’s opponents in the Republican primary in March, said this week that if the allegations in the CNN report are false, Robinson should “get a really good attorney, come up with a modicum of evidence that disproves some of it, sue them and settle in court.”
“If you’re not able to do that within a reasonable period of time, then it puts weight to the likely reality that some, maybe not all, but some of these allegations are true, and if they are, they’re devastating and disqualifying,” Tillis told reporters.
Tillis went on to give Robinson an ultimatum, telling reporters that Robinson should disprove the report by Friday. He said that was the day “I will make a decision myself.”
Washington correspondent Danielle Battaglia contributed to this report.
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