WASHINGTON — Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., knew reporters were waiting for him Wednesday morning outside a committee meeting in the Dirksen building on the U.S. Capitol complex.

For a week, members of the North Carolina delegation had been followed through the hallways, fielding media questions about a scandal involving N.C. Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson.

On Sept. 19, CNN’s KFile published an investigation that tied Robinson to racist and raunchy posts on an online porn forum. Robinson denies the allegations, but the report led to resignations from both his campaign and official staffs.

On Wednesday, Tillis, a Republican, turned his back to the reporters for a minute to finish a conversation with someone in the hall, and when he turned back he jumped at the sight of how many reporters had come up behind him to get the interview.

Then he laughed at his own reaction and walked toward the group to discuss an ultimatum he gave Robinson.

“I’m here to get a majority in the Senate, get President Trump reelected and to maintain majorities in our state legislature and anything that’s an obstacle to that is a problem for me,” Tillis told the reporters. “He needs to remove this obstacle, one way or another.”

Interest in North Carolina had become commonplace this election cycle. Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump invested time, resources and money into capturing the battleground state’s 16 electoral votes.

But the scandal with Robinson put a new focus on the state, and could potentially harm Trump and down-ballot candidates who had supported Robinson’s run for governor.

Tillis is not one of those people who offered support to Robinson. Tillis and Robinson have a history of sparring in the media. And Tillis endorsed Robinson’s opponent, saying Robinson’s lack of legislative and business experience wouldn’t work well in a state like North Carolina.

Tillis told the reporters he’s tried to be fair about the situation, saying he’s applied the principles he learned in his favorite college course : Logic and Critical Thinking. He said he believes that’s what all people should use when looking at the allegations against Robinson.

Tillis said it’s on Robinson to provide the answers people are looking for.

“If the allegations put forth by KFile and CNN are false, get a really good attorney, come up with a modicum of evidence that disproves some of it, sue them and settle in court,” Tillis said. “If you’re not able to do that within a reasonable period of time, then it puts weight to the likely reality that some, maybe not all, but some of these allegations are true, and if they are, they’re devastating and disqualifying.”

Tillis gave Robinson an ultimatum through reporters this week — disprove it by Friday. What happens on Friday is unclear, but Tillis said that’s the day “I will make a decision myself.”

He added that he’s had allegations levied at him that weren’t true. A media outlet came to his team with information about him that was wrong, he said. He got an attorney and was willing to fight the outlet in court, if that’s what they chose to do. The story never happened. He didn’t specify the outlet or the topic.

“That’s how you deal with it — expeditiously,” Tillis said. “You don’t wait. I mean, my goodness, you get people lined up to defend your good name. This is about a human. This has life changing consequences for somebody. You’d think it would be a priority.”

On Tuesday afternoon, Robinson hired Binnell Law Group, which once represented Trump, to investigate the allegations against him.

“You know, I grew up in the technology space,” said Tillis, who previously worked as an executive at IBM. “If we’ve got something here — now it’s being said it was a product of AI and technical experts — then hire a top-tier firm like the one I used to be a partner at, go in there, do the forensic technical research and build a case, it shouldn’t be that difficult to disprove the basis for some of these reports, if they’re untrue.”

Tillis said the longer Robinson lets this linger, the more at risk he is putting other Republican candidates.

“So Mark Robinson owes it to the people of North Carolina, to everybody down ballot and to President Trump to either prosecute a case against CNN and KFile or admit that some or all of it is correct and step aside,” Tillis said. “This is bigger than any one elected office and we have to look at it that way.”

Sen. Ted Budd, a Republican, was walking to the chamber Thursday afternoon when he was stopped to talk about Robinson.

Unlike Tillis, Budd had previously offered his endorsement of Robinson for governor.

Budd tried his best to get out of answering questions, but was polite and stayed.

“He’s given his defense,” Budd said. “It’s up to him to make clear to North Carolina voters, and by the way, North Carolina voters are very smart about how they pick and choose their candidates.”

Is Budd still picking Robinson?

“I always support Republicans,” Budd said.

Across the Capitol, members of the House were gathering to vote for a continuing resolution to keep the government funded until Dec. 20, and to add resources to the Secret Service to better protect the president and the presidential candidates after two assassination attempts on Trump’s life.

There are various doors and hallways to choose from to enter the chamber, so McClatchy could not catch every member of the delegation.

Rep. Patrick McHenry, a North Carolina Republican, was standing with two people outside the cloakroom. He made eye contact with McClatchy and started walking away. As McClatchy took a step toward him a woman said, “run” and he sped up and turned down a hall toward Statuary Hall to avoid questions.

Rep. David Rouzer, a North Carolina Republican, stopped for a moment outside the elevators to the chamber to address the situation.

“He’s got to make his case to the voters,” Rouzer said. “That’s the bottom line.”

Rouzer said everyone was surprised by the allegations against Robinson.

He added that he’s not followed the story closely because he’s been so busy and focused on Congress this week.

“That’s the honest truth,” Rouzer said.

When asked if there’s a point at which Rouzer would not support Robinson, he said, “He’s got a lot of explaining to do to voters, but you know, ultimately, they’re going to be the judge.”

Around the corner, Rep. Kathy Manning, an N.C. Democrat, was walking through the Speaker’s Lobby, off the House chamber.

“I think it’s been obvious for quite some time that he was not qualified for the job he’s seeking, nor is he qualified for the job he’s in,” Manning said. “And the statements that we’ve seen him make on video previous to the most recent revelation should have been enough to, first of all, cause voters not to vote for him, but second of all cause the Republican Party to support another nominee.”

State Treasurer Dale Folwell and businessman Bill Graham challenged Robinson in the Republican primary, but Robinson won handily. He’s now facing off against Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democrat.

Manning questioned how this got past the Republican Party’s vetting of Robinson.

“Or if they vetted him, they thought they were going to pull the wool over our eyes, or they thought that being an antisemitic, homophobic, misogynist, unqualified candidate was acceptable for the Republican Party, the Republican voters. That’s before the most recent revelation,” Manning said.

She said she’s also questioning why nothing before the latest development caused them to reconsider their support.

Manning said she wanted to understand how bad the posts were. She heard CNN say there were things written on the forum, allegedly by Robinson, that even cable news wasn’t willing to air. So she looked them up.

“I literally wanted to throw out my phone when I saw,” Manning said. “It was the most disgusting thing I’ve ever read, and I’m a lot older than you. I’ve seen things. I’ve never seen anything that totally disgusting and I can’t understand why people would vote for him under these circumstances.”

Asked if she believes Robinson wrote the comments, she responded: “Has there been a defamation lawsuit filed? Has there been a slander lawsuit filed? Is his staff sticking with him? Did Donald Trump invite him to his rally in North Carolina last week? All those issues speak pretty loudly to me.”

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