WILKESBORO, N.C. (WGHP) — Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson spoke at a meet-and-greet in the Piedmont Triad. The event was held at Vernon's Cake Carousel in Wilkesboro at 9 a.m. on Monday. A full transcript of Robinson's remarks are included below. Guys, we're going to run a test here real quick. Now I want you to look around. I want you to look at these news cameras. There's Spectrum. There's News 2. There's a whole myriad of them. We're going to see what they play, what they say and what you see on your TV this evening. And I'm going to start off by ignoring all their salacious lies. We're not going to talk about that. What I'm going to do is I'm going to talk about the same thing we've talked about this entire campaign that they have ignored. And I want to see if you see this this evening on the news. I know this speech so much that I can repeat it because I've said it in every corner of this state. The thing that we are concerned with in this race. We are not interested in turning back and looking backward, except to see the mistakes that we've made in this state politically, so that we do not repeat them. What we are interested in is looking forward and here's what we need to look forward to do. We need to, number one, work on our economy. That is the number one issue that faces us. Why is it so important? Because that economy is built on five pillars. It's built on the pillars of public safety, public education, healthcare, infrastructure and housing. Without those things, we cannot have an economy, and you need a governor who is going to make sure those things are healthy. How does the governor do that? Because the governor appoints the people who are over the Department of Public Safety. They appoint the people who are over the school board which holds sway over education. The governor appoints the person at DHHS which holds sway over healthcare. and the governor appoints the people who are over DEQ and DOT which largely determine our housing and our infrastructure. The governor plays a huge role in determining the success of our economy and the health thereof. We need to make sure that those agencies are healthy, that they are not being weaponized against the people, that they are not being weaponized against the people, no matter whether they're Republican, Democrat or Independent. They need to be there to support the people, not browbeat the people. We need to make sure those agencies are healthy so our economy can be healthy. Now inside of that, we're talking about education, folks. We talked about education, and we mentioned education, but you got to pull that piece out, and you got to examine that one big time. Why? Because we have a $33.1 billion in this state and of that budget we spend 61% of it on public education and statistically speaking our K through 12 students cannot read on a grade level. When was the last time you heard that statistic in the news media? This news media is not concerned about the issues that you are facing. They're not concerned about the issues that you're facing, and I guarantee you that they will not play this message tonight on their evening news or afternoon news or any other news, because they don't want to focus on these things. But we have been laser-focused on this entire campaign. This is what we have been focused on. We have not been focused on lies based on salacious stories from 15 years ago. We have been talking about the truth of the matter of what is going on in this state, the lives of the people of North Carolina and how it is affected, because we want to bring solutions, folks. We want to bring classical education. We want to bring classical education back to this state. We want agendas gone from the classroom, politically and socially. They need to be gone. We need to get back to reading, writing and mathematics. We need to get back to history and civics. Real history and civics, not the 1619 Project, not CRT, not DEI, real education, so we can get our children career ready and have them ready to build an economy in this state hears the North star we should be shooting for in this state. The governor, the legislature, and everybody in this state, we should be shooting to build an economy that spans from Murphy to Manteo that everybody in this state deserves to be part of, not just the folks in the middle part of the state, the entire state, so my dream is that one day that no matter where you stand in this state, whether you're in the western part, the eastern part, the coast or the central part, you can make a great living right where you stand, where your zip code is. Folks, this election is not about me, and it's certainly not about the trash that the news media wants to talk about. This election is about you. It's about you. It's about which candidate is ready to go out and fight like hell to stop your children from dying of fentanyl. It's about the candidate that's willing to stand up for you when the chips are down. It's about the one who actually knows what it's like to have someone come in their plant and tell them, 'Next week, you won't have a job because your job's going to Mexico.' I've walked in those shoes. It's about the one that drives past those places, those scars, those empty factories. You know those empty factories in places like Thomasville? Empty factories in places like Kent where they pulled up the roots and pulled the rug out from underneath people. That's what this election is about, so when they come on the news and they talk about everything else under the sun except what matters to you, you remember, the way you fix that is on Nov. 5 when you vote for somebody who is here for you, and I am here for you. Because I'm not here for them and I never have been and I never will be, because they ain't never fixed nothing but a plate of food right in front of them to feed themselves. But together, together, me and you, we can get this state going in the right direction. It's been going that way since 2010 under Republican leadership in the legislature, we just need to fill in that one spot which is the governor's mansion. And with your help we can do that. I want you to know I believe in you just like you believe in me, and we know that we can get this thing done. Asked about four high-level staffers who recently left the Robinson campaign, he said: We have full confidence that we can go on. We're getting resumes from all over. We're getting offers from all over. People are jumping in to help us. We've made a ton of friends in this thing since we've been in. Lot of talented people right now are reaching out to us and right in the process right now of forming a team that we know can still lead to victory, so we have full confidence in our ability to keep going. A reporter asked Robinson about the timing of those resignations. Robinson was recently the subject of a CNN report that linked the lieutenant governor to incendiary comments on a pornography website tied to an account under the name "Mark Robinson" that shared a username Robinson has used on other websites and referenced key details in his life and used of uncommon phrases that he uses. Robinson has adamantly denied that those words were his. The timing doesn't matter. It's not the timing. it's how you react and we are ready to react and we're doing it right now. We're getting it done. Asked if he is taking steps to prove that the comments were not his, Robinson said: We absolutely are. We're in talks right now, everything up to legal cousel to take CNN to task for what they have done to us. We are going after them. We are going to go after them for what they've done, but we have five weeks left of this race, folks. Make no mistake about it. We are not going to let CNN throw us off of our mission. Our mission is to win this race, and, quite frankly, I am dismayed about the fact as I said before, think about how many people out there right now, right in the place where we are right now who are hooked on fentanyl, who are hooked on opioids, and how many will die tonight because of it. Think about what's going on on our borders. Think about what's going on on the world stage, and this is what you — this is what you choose to focus on? You've got these news cameras, news reporters, pens, pencils, your microphones. This is what you're focused on? You're not focused on the things that we talked about standing up there about our economy. You're not focused on those things. I am. I'm going to remain focused on those things and you better understand, I am coming after CNN full throttle, but we have got to put the people first, and in order to put the people first, in order to put the people first, we have got to concentrate on this campaign and that is exactly what we're going to do. That's exactly what we're going to do. Thank you. No more questions. No more questions. No more questions. As reporters continued to ask questions, Robinson said: You're from Greensboro, and in Greensboro, when I made history as the first Black lieutenant governor of North Carolina, you did not knock on my door, don't knock on it now.