WASHINGTON GOP gubernatorial nominee Mark Robinson says he has backed away from former President Donald Trump so the North Carolina Republicans porn site scandal doesnt drag Trump down politically in the state ahead of the November election.

In a Wednesday interview with conservative radio host and former Trump administration official Sebastian Gorka, Robinson, whose campaign has been falling apart after a CNN report unearthed disturbing comments he apparently made on a porn site forum, said hes facing a lot of fire and doesnt want to be a liability for Trump.

So we have backed away from the president to give him his space to run his race, while we have space to run our race, said Robinson, who is currently the states lieutenant governor. We have chosen to pull ourselves back from President Trump.

Heres a video clip of Robinson on Gorkas show, which was first flagged by Media Matters for America, a progressive media monitoring group.

North Carolina is a key swing state for winning the presidency. Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and Trump remain incredibly close there, per polling aggregator FiveThirtyEight . And theres certainly fear among North Carolina Republicans that Robinson could hurt all of their chances.