With North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson reeling from explosive allegations about his postings on the Nude Africa website, Donald Trump found a cute surrogate to bring onstage for his rally in the state: granddaughter Carolina.
Trump introduced his granddaughter, whose parent are Eric and Lara, at an outdoor rally in the crucial battleground that is her namesake.
‘Her name is Carolina and she’s beautiful and she’s sweet and she doesn’t know how evil life is – she hasn’t experienced it yet,’ Trump said while introducing her.
Then he brought up his grandson Luke to the podium surrounded by bulletproof glass after a pair of assassination attempts. ‘Vote for grandpa,’ he said.
But Robinson, who is fending off allegations about his postings on race and sex and even slavery, was not among the dignitaries Trump name-checked.
Trump holds his granddaughter Carolina to the microphone during the rally
Donald Trump is rejecting Kamala Harris ’ proposal for another presidential debate just weeks before Election Day, he told a rally in North Carolina on Saturday
The family moment camer after Trump said he is rejecting Kamala Harris’ proposal for another presidential debate just weeks before Election Day.
‘It’s too late. I’d love to do another in many ways, but it’s too late,’ Trump told the rally crowd in Wilmington, North Carolina, with ‘Trump Force One’ in the background.
He said Harris wants the debate ‘because she’s losing,’ hours after her campaign advisor said she had accepted an Oct. 23 invitation from CNN to debate.
With no debate on the horizon other than a vice presidential standoff, the candidates will face off in an ongoing TV air war, with Harris far outraising Trump in August but Trump’s big donors cashing huge checks to outside groups.
They will also hold dueling press conferences and interviews. Trump ridiculed Harris for her recent town hall style event with Oprah Winfrey, and he played a video mocking some of her verbal crutches.
But Trump couldn’t stop himself from taking shots at President Biden, who is no longer running. He held his first cabinet meeting in nearly a year Friday.
‘Is he the president? Because yesterday his wife took over the cabinet meeting, right?’ Trump said.
North Carolina is emerging as a state that is almost a must win for Trump, although Harris has been giving it ongoing attention amid polls showing a very close race in Pennsylvania.
‘We win this state, I think it’s going to be over fast,’ Trump predicted.
Trump held a big outdoor rally in battleground North Carolina just hours after a bombshell report alleging the state’s Republican Gov. Mark Robinson made incendiary posts on the Nude Africa message board.
Trump seen being greeted by a raucous reception in Wilmington, North Carolina
Trump was in North Carolina to support embattled gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson, pictured at a previous event on August 14, 2024
Robinson wasn’t there, although Trump acknowledged multiple lawmakers from the stage, including Sen. Ted Budd and Rep. Dan Bishop and various public officials.
He even introduced ‘front row Joes’ and other regular Trump rally attendees and a county commissioner, but made no mention of the Lieutenant Governor in his introductory remarks.
With no Robinson around, Trump brought two grandkids, the children of Eric and Lara Trump, on stage.
‘Her name is Carolina and she’s beautiful and she’s sweet and she doesn’t know how evil life is – she hasn’t experienced it yet,’ Trump said while introducing his granddaughter.
Grandson Luke gave a brief speech for his grandfather. ‘Vote for grandpa,’ he said.
Some of Trump’s supporters are ready to part ways Robinson, with one Trump-backer predicting the two men’s fate was now closely tied. ‘If things go south for Robinson, things go south for Trump,’ Trump backer Patty O’Neil told DailyMail.com.
Robinson was facing pressure even from fellow Republicans to drop out of the race in the hours before CNN published the report Thursday.
His alleged ‘inflammatory’ comments included Robinson calling himself a ‘perv,’ describing ‘peeping’ on women when he was 14, declaring he likes ‘watching tranny on girl porn.’
Other incendiary or racist comments included stating ‘I’m a Black Nazi!’ and writing: ‘Slavery is not bad. Some people need to be slaves. I wish they would bring it (slavery) back. I would certainly buy a few.’
Trump predicted that he would win North Carolina in November, adding that he thinks ‘it’s going to be over fast’
Law enforcement take their positions on a rooftop at the North Carolina event
MAGA fans lined up for an outdoor rally Saturday were keyed in on the salacious allegations, with some saying they wouldn’t back the Republican officer and one warning it could hurt Trump and other Republicans on the ballot.
‘I have followed politics for a while. I think that Mark Robinson is the October surprise,’ said Patty O’Neil, who runs a Wilmington pet-sitting business.
‘Mark Robinson is a very conservative independent-thinking black man, and there are plenty of people that want to take him down. Let’s think about Herschel Walker,’ she said, mention the Georgia Republican football star whose Trump-backed campaign imploded.
‘The concern that I have, that probably shouldn’t be spoken about aloud, is that the Republican Party needs to stand behind these black conservatives, period. If things go south for Robinson, things go south for Trump,’ she said.
For Kevin Ibanez, a Long Island transplant and retired Suffolk County police officer, says he’s ready to take a pass on the controversial figure amid the latest reports.
‘I don’t think I’m going to vote for him. He’s a grown man going on a porn web site. I could skip him,’ he said. ‘You shouldn’t be on this porn web site. Come on! You’re a grown man,’ he said on the way to a Trump rally.
But Ibanez is more forgiving toward Donald Trump, who has compared to Robinson to Martin Luther King, Jr.
‘He’s a crazy man at times. But he’s the best for our country. I wish he could just calm his rhetoric a little bit. Just chill,’ he said. ‘He is what he is.’
Trump and Robinson pictured together at a rally in North Carolina on August 21, 2024
Raymond Bebb and Lisa Perdue, originally from Pittsburgh and decked out in a Steelers outfit, was up to speed on the latest allegations.
‘I’m not happy about what I’ve heard, but we’ll see whether he resigns.’
We have a penchant for shooting ourselves in both feet,’ he said.
‘When you see crowds like this, and the crowds that he’s drawing all over in his visits to North Carolina, I think we’re ready for a new era.’
The man was elected to be lieutenant governor, so why didn’t this stuff all come out then. Did his political opponents not dig deep enough? I don’t know. But it wouldn’t bother me. I’d vote for the ma
Robinson denied the report as salacious ‘tabloid trash.’
In a video denial, Robinson said: ‘Let me reassure you the things that you will see in that story, those are not the words of Mark Robinson,” he said. “You know my words, you know my character and you know that I have been completely transparent in this race and before.’
He also skipped Trump running mate J.D. Vance’s event in the state Wednesday.