Gov. LePage: Lewis Should Thank GOP For Ending Slavery

Republican Gov. Paul LePage of Maine has asserted that Democratic Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, the civil rights icon who ignited controversy after stating that he did not believe President-elect Donald Trump was a legitimate president, should thank the GOP for ending slavery.

LePage has faced criticism in the past for controversial remarks made toward racial minorities, particularly African Americans.

On Jan. 17, LePage criticized Lewis for accusing Trump of being an illegitimate president whose campaign had been aided by the Russian government.

While Lewis had not referenced race during his statements regarding Trump, LePage suggested the Georgia lawmaker should set aside his reservations about the president-elect because of the Republican Party’s history of civil rights.

“You know, I will just say this: John Lewis ought to look at history,” LePage told a local Maine radio station, reports The Hill. “It was [President] Abraham Lincoln that freed the slaves. It was [Presidents] Rutherford B. Hayes and Ulysses S. Grant that fought against Jim Crow laws.”

The Maine governor concluded “A simple ‘thank you’ would suffice.”

LePage added that he believed Democratic lawmakers who currently plan to snub Trump’s inauguration are “so hateful and so, they are trying to bully us out of believing our Constitution.”

On Jan. 13, Lewis ignited controversy when he told NBC News that he would boycott the Jan. 20 inauguration because he believes that Trump is not a legitimate president.

“I don’t see this president-elect as a legitimate president … I think the Russians participated in helping this man get elected,” Lewis said.

The 78-year-old Georgia lawmaker, who had been among the leaders of the civil rights movement and had suffered serious injuries from local Alabama law enforcement during the 1965 march on Selma, added, “You cannot be at home with something that you feel that is wrong, is not right.”

On Jan. 14, Trump took to Twitter to blast Lewis for his comments.

“Congressman John Lewis should spend more time on fixing and helping his district, which is in horrible shape and falling apart (not to mention crime infested) rather than falsely complaining about the election results,” Trump tweeted.

LePage is no stranger to controversy, having been accused of racism for a series of remarks that he made in 2016. In January 2016, the Maine governor was criticized after allegedly asserting that his state’s opioid epidemic was attributable to African Americans from out of state and that interracial children were undesirable, The Washington Post reports.

In a press conference, LePage had stated that heroin dealers in his state were “guys with the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty … half the time they impregnate a young white girl before they leave … a real sad thing because then we have another issue we have to deal with down the road.”

LePage later issued an apology for his remarks, stating that he did not mean to offend “Maine women.”

Sources: The Hill, NBC News, The Washington Post / Photo credit: Maine Department of Education/Flickr