Leesport, Pennsylvania - Vice presidential candidate JD Vance was recently asked how he felt about the recent scandal surrounding North Carolina lieutenant governor Mark Robinson, and his response has left critics baffled.

On Saturday, Vance did a brief interview with NBC News, in which he was asked if he was "comfortable" with Robinson being the Republican nominee for governor in his state following a damning report that uncovered a slew of incendiary comments he shared on a porn website's message board.

Vance evaded the question entirely, stating, "It's ultimately up to Mark Robinson and North Carolina whether he's going to be their governor and whether he wants to stay in the race."

The report found that Robinson, an evangelical Christian who has a long history of making controversial public statements, called himself a "Black Nazi" and a "perv" and shared a number of lewd and sexually graphic comments.

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Despite pressure from fellow Republicans to drop out of the race, Robinson has aggressively refused and has insisted that the past comments "are not the words of Mark Robinson."

When asked if he believed Robinson's claim they were not his posts, Vance doubled down and evaded answering again with a double negative.

"I don't not believe him, I don't believe him – I just think that you have to let these things sometimes play out in the court of public opinion," he responded.

In the 2024 presidential election, Vance is running alongside Donald Trump, who enthusiastically endorsed Robinson earlier this year in his run for governor of North Carolina.

Trump has publicly praised Robinson on many occasions, describing him as "Martin Luther King [Jr.] on steroids" and "like a fine wine" that one should "cherish."

Their friendship has been under scrutiny since Robinson's comments surfaced, but Trump has yet to publicly address it.

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As Trump's running mate, Vance has become his most aggressive surrogate, regularly arguing in support of his boss' most controversial views and statements and working to regain control of narratives being pushed by the media.

The clip of his comments about Robinson has gone viral and has left many critics on social media shocked. One user described his response as "word salad," while another deemed it "beyond parody."

During the interview, Vance did go on to say that he and Trump "don't have any plans to campaign" with Robinson, who made his return to the campaign trail on Monday.