(The Hill) — North Carolina Lt. Gov Mark Robinson (R) was hospitalized and treated for burns Friday after a campaign incident, according to the gubernatorial candidate's campaign.
“This evening following an incident at a campaign appearance at the Mayberry Truck Show in Mt. Airy, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson was treated at Northern Regional Hospital for second-degree burns,” Mike Lonergan, the campaign’s communications director, said in a statement.
“He is in good spirits, appreciates the outpouring of well wishes, and is excited to return to the campaign trail as scheduled first thing tomorrow morning,” he added.
Robinson’s campaign told NewsNation — which is owned by The Hill's parent company Nexstar Media Group — that Robinson was discharged and will be back campaigning in the Tar Heel State Saturday. The lieutenant governor burned his hand after leaning against a truck at a truck show in Mt Airy, according to a Washington Post reporter.
The health incident comes shortly after Robinson started receiving backlash following the publishing of CNN’s explosive report about the candidate, detailing a flurry of inflammatory comments he apparently made on a porn site messaging board over 10 years ago, including calling himself a “black NAZI." In those posts, the lieutenant governor described his pornography preferences and said he would take Adolf Hitler over “any of the s‑‑‑ that’s in Washington.”
A number of his campaign staff left in the wake of the reports. He has also lost support from the Republican Governors Association, which said they did not have any future ad reservations backing the candidate in the governor's race against state Attorney General Josh Stein (D).
Some of his top government office staff also indicated they would resign from their posts. Some Republicans have distanced themselves from Robinson, with many suggesting he should disprove the allegations in the report or possibly halt his gubernatorial run.
Robinson said on Tuesday that he had hired Binnall Law Group, a law firm, to probe the “false smears” in the report and has vowed to stay in the race.