Four top operatives on Mark Robinson’s campaign for North Carolina governor have stepped down, the campaign announced on Sunday.

General consultant and senior advisor Conrad Pogorzelski III, campaign manager Chris Rodriguez, finance director Heather Whillier and deputy campaign manager Jason Rizk have stepped down from the campaign.

The announcement from Robinson’s campaign comes in the aftermath of a CNN report uncovering inflammatory comments the lieutenant governor and Republican nominee for governor made on a pornography website message board over a decade ago. The lewd comments included Robinson describing himself as a “black Nazi” and how he used to go “peeping” on women at a public gym when he was 14 years old.

Robinson has a long history of making inflammatory statements but the newly unearthed message board posts go a step beyond.

Since the CNN report, some North Carolina Republicans have moved to pressure Robinson to drop out – though the state deadline for him to officially withdraw as a candidate has passed. Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign has also looked to leverage Robinson’s association with former President Donald Trump in a new ad.

In a statement announcing the departure Robinson reiterated his intention to stay in the race.

“My campaign will continue to focus on the substantive issues at stake in this election: building an economy that grows from Murphy to Manteo; cutting taxes and eliminating unnecessary red-tape; removing politics out of our classrooms; and cracking down on violent crime and dangerous drugs,” Robinson said in the statement.

“Polls have consistently underestimated Republican support in North Carolina for several cycles now and with a large portion of the electorate still undecided as we continue to ramp up our efforts across the state, I am confident our campaign remains in a strong position to make our case to the voters and win on November 5.”

This is a breaking story and will be updated.