2024 Elections

Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance struggled over the weekend to defend denials by Mark Robinson, the Republican nominee for governor in North Carolina, after he made controversial comments on a pornographic website, which included calling himself a "Black Nazi" and defending slavery.

A reporter for NBC Philadelphia asked Vance to react after Robinson denied making the comments.

Appearing on CNN early Sunday morning, longtime journalist Lynn Sweet poured cold water on Donald Trump's excuse for staying away from a second debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.

On Saturday morning, the Harris campaign announced it had agreed to a second debate, this one to be on CNN after appearing previously with the former president on ABC which went poorly for Trump.

Speaking at a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina on Saturday afternoon, Trump told the crowd that it made no sense to debate again because it's "too late."

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Specifically, he claimed, "She’s done one debate, I’ve done two, it’s too late to do another. I’d love to, in many ways, but it’s too late, the voting is cast, the voters are out there.”

Speaking with CNN's Amara Walker, Sweet needled the former president for speaking out of both sides of his mouth.

"The first debate in 2020 was September 29th, the second was in October," she dryly explained. "The whole point of it debate is to make it possible for you to be elected president of the United States, it's not for entertainment value or any other calculation, it doesn't matter who gets the last word."

North Carolina's 16 Electoral College votes could help provide the crucial difference in which party crosses the 270-vote threshold this November. And Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign has unveiled a strategy to put the state back in the Democratic column for the first time since 2008.

According to a recent Politico report, the Harris campaign has outlined how to defeat former President Donald Trump by tying him to Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson. Though while Robinson has been having to answer for numerous posts he allegedly made on an adult website — including posts pining for a return of chattel slavery and praising Adolf Hitler — the vice president is instead keeping its attacks focused on policy.