'Can't even begin to speculate': Onlookers stunned that worse Mark Robinson story will hit

News of an imminent CNN report that could force North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson to drop out of the race just hours before the final deadline had political pundits asking themselves one question Thursday.

"The premise of an impending 'damning news story' about *Mark Robinson* is insane because he's already openly a Holocaust denier," wrote Jezebel columnist Kylie Cheung. "So you really wonder what the straw that broke the camel's back is going to be."

Robinson, the controversial candidate with former President Donald Trump's backing, reportedly canceled two events Thursday even as his campaign denied he'd consider dropping out of the race.

But reporter Bryan Anderson, a former North Carolina Statehouse reporter for the Associated Press, said Thursday "major drama" is brewing and the Carolina Journal reports conservative pressure on Robinson to call it quits.

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Robinson accused Martin Luther King, Jr. of being a "communist," called pop star Beyoncé a "devil worshipper" said he missed the days when women could not vote, quoted Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler and referred to gay people as maggots.

Such comments prompted Atlantic writer Yair Rosenberg to express surprise Thursday morning about the Robinson brouhaha.

"I find it hard to imagine 'a story that is worse for Mark Robinson than everything that has already come out on Mark Robinson,' but purportedly, my lack of imagination is about to get exposed," he wrote.

James Surowiecki, a contributor to Fast Company and the Atlantic, agreed.

"Given all the crazy things Mark Robinson has already said," he wrote on X, "it's honestly hard to imagine how bad this story would have to be for it to make him cancel campaign events."

"I have no idea what the Mark Robinson story will be about," added 270toWin contributor Drew Savicki. Given that it's Mark Robinson I can't even begin to speculate."

But while others cracked jokes, conservative radio host Erick Erickson said he was not laughing.

"Robinson was never vetted well," wrote Erickson. "The base loved that he owned the left and they never paid attention to the opposition research, which is about to spill out. It will end badly. Trump's endorsement of Robinson might cost Trump the state."