Maine Gov. Paul LePage Threatens, Swears at Lawmaker in Voicemail
Photo via AP
Paul LePage is outdoing himself this week.
The governor of Maine has once again found himself in the spotlight today after an obscenity-laden voicemail he left a rival in the state legislature went public.
LePage, who just recently called the father of a dead U.S. soldier a “con artist” for criticizing Donald Trump, was apparently upset with Democratic Rep. Drew Gattine. A reporter had said on TV that Gattine called the governor racist, which, as the Portland Press Herald reports, Gattine has denied.
But as it turns out, being called a racist, or thinking he’s been called a racist, makes Paul LePage very mad.
“I would like to talk to you about your comments about my being a racist, you c—ksucker,” he says in the voicemail, which the Press Herald posted on its website. “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 c—ksucker. 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 is dodging the r-word after a string of comments he’s made about the role race plays in the state’s drug problem.
To recap: He has noticed a lot of black and Hispanic faces in a binder full of pictures of drug dealers arrested in Maine, he says. And one scary side effect of the opioid epidemic, he said this year, is that “guys with the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty” come up to his state to distribute drugs, and “half the time they impregnate a young, white girl before they leave.” Also, people with Indian accents are “the worst ones” to understand, he’s said, as are Bulgarians.
As for that voicemail, LePage gave a follow-up interview with reporters to set the record straight.
LePage, an elected official charged with administering a state, said that what he would really like is to shoot Gattine, a state representative, in the face with a gun.
“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, again according to the Press Herald. “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.”
LePage is on his way to Boston this weekend. He is among guests expected at the 40th annual Conference of the New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers on Sunday and Monday, which is being held at the State House and Hynes Convention Center.
