Maine Gov. LePage Makes Troubling Comments On Minorites

Republican Gov. Paul LePage of Maine tried to defend himself from accusations of racism by making comments that many believed were worse than what he originally said.

“A bad guy is a bad guy. I don’t care what color he is,” LePage said on camera, according to Vox. “When you go to war, if you know the enemy, the enemy dresses in red and you dress in blue, you shoot at red. … You shoot at the enemy. You try to identify the enemy. And the enemy right now, the overwhelming majority of people coming in are people of color or people of Hispanic origin.”

LePage has made headlines before for blaming black and Hispanic people from New York and Connecticut for the increase in Maine’s drug activity. And when making his latest comments, he was attempting to explain this theory in relation to a threatening voicemail he recently left for Democratic State Rep. Drew Gattine of Maine, whom the Republican governor lambasted for allegedly calling him a racist.

“Mr. Gattine, this is Gov. Paul Richard LePage. I would like to talk to you about your comments about my being a racist, you ****sucker.” LePage said, reported the Portland Press-Herald. “I want to talk to you. I want you to prove that I’m a racist. I’ve spent my life helping black people and you little son of a b****, socialist ****sucker. You… I need you to… Just friggin’… I want you to record this and make it public because I am after you. Thank you.”

Gattine denied having ever called LePage a racist and told Politico that the governor should seek “professional help.”

I think Maine people are getting extremely concerned after six years — and these kind of escalating events with respect to our governor — that he is now at the point where he isn’t fit to be governor. That he really probably needs to get some sort of professional help and that as a state, we’re not going to be able to solve our problems, including this very serious problem we have with heroin under the leadership of this governor. And you know, we’re just concerned that we can’t move our state forward with this man as our governor.

Sources: Vox, Portland Press-Herald, Politico /Photo credit: Maine Department of Education/Flickr