Maine Governor Paul LePage repeatedly says racist things in public, but he swears he is not a racist. LePage is so not-racist, he called up a state lawmaker and screamed how not-racist he is to prove it.
LePage erupted into a fit of rage and abruptly walked off an interview after a local reporter told him that Democratic state Representative Drew Gattine called him a "racist." LePage then left Gattine a curse-filled voice message which you can listen to at the Portland Press Herald website if you're so inclined.
“Mr. Gattine, this is Gov. Paul Richard LePage,” a recording of the governor’s phone message says. “I would like to talk to you about your comments about my being a racist, you (expletive). 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-bitch, socialist (expletive). You … I need you to, just friggin. I want you to record this and make it public because I am after you. Thank you.”
LePage also spoke to the Portland Press Herald and openly fantasized about killing Representative Gattine.
“When a snot-nosed little guy from Westbrook calls me a racist, now I’d like him to come up here because, tell you right now, I wish it were 1825,” LePage said. “And we would have a duel, that’s how angry I am, and I would not put my gun in the air, I guarantee you, I would not be (Alexander) Hamilton. I would point it right between his eyes, because he is a snot-nosed little runt and he has not done a damn thing since he’s been in this Legislature to help move the state forward.”
The best (worst) part of this story is that Rep. Gattine never actually called LePage a racist. LePage went on this hateful tirade and fantasized about killing a lawmaker over a misreported quote.
In other related news, Governor LePage also condemned the family of Captain Khan whose father spoke at the Democratic convention and offered to give Donald Trump his pocket copy of the Constitution.
One day after he told a crowd in South Berwick he possessed a “three-ring binder of black and Hispanic drug dealers from Waterbury, the Bronx, Brooklyn,” LePage shared his thoughts on Khan with Herald columnist Howie Carr.
“Then there’s the all mighty powerful ones like Mr. Khan, which is a con artist himself, and he uses the death of his son, who’s an American soldier, which we respect and honor, and he uses that to go after Trump, which I found very distasteful,” LePage said.
It's not clear what the governor meant when he referred to the "all mighty powerful ones." Powerful what? Muslims?
Speaking of LePage's binder of black and Hispanic drug dealers, the ACLU has requested a copy of the binder's contents using the state's open records law.
Augusta – The ACLU of Maine today filed a Freedom of Access Act (FOAA) request for records related to the arrest of Black and Hispanic people in Maine. At a town hall meeting in North Berwick last night, Gov. LePage stated he keeps a binder with pictures of “every single drug dealer who has been arrested in our state.” He went on to claim that 90 percent of those arrested are Black or Hispanic. [...]
According to the governor, Maine police are nine times more likely to arrest people of color for selling drugs than white people, even though we know white people are just as likely to commit drug offenses. This alarming disparity in arrests raises significant concerns that Maine law enforcement is participating in unconstitutional racial profiling.
I submit that LePage will not hand over his binder of drug dealers because the binder does not actually exist. LePage pulled the "90 percent" number out of his ass because he is a racist.
Paul LePage needs to resign.