Bret Stephens: Hi, Gail. So much ground for us to cover this week. First up, Mark Robinson, North Carolina’s lieutenant governor and the Republican Party’s nominee in the governor’s race. I don’t even know if we’re allowed to discuss the latest, er, revelations in a family newspaper ….

Gail Collins: Ah, Bret, that’s certainly one of the few advantages of the Trump era — never a shortage of topics that are too offensive to discuss. Here we have a crucial Donald Trump supporter in a crucial swing state who apparently once called himself a “Black Nazi.”

Bret: The “Black Nazi” part is almost the least of it. Let’s just say this is yet another case of self-declared morality being at variance with actual behavior.

Gail: And if you pursue the story, you learn that Trump once praised Robinson as “Martin Luther King on steroids,” which I found offensive even before there turned out to be so much more to be offended about.

Bret: What makes the story all the more remarkable is that this could hand the election to Kamala Harris. North Carolina was supposed to be in Trump’s corner, but the race was basically tied on the day the latest Robinson story broke. If Trump can’t win the state, it’s hard to see how he gets to 270 electoral votes. Who knew that karma is a porn site message board?

By the way, since we’re on a prurient streak, any thoughts on the story of New York City’s former Covid czar, Jay Varma?