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“LePage’s tenure as governor has been a six-year odyssey of the impolitic – from crude sexual references about a Democratic senator to his granting an audience to anti-government extremists who suggested the public execution of two Democratic legislative leaders”.
Around 200 people in Westbrook gathered Wednesday night to call for a return to decency in ME politics.
LePage is scheduled to meet on Wednesday with Thibodeau and state Representative Drew Gattine, the recipient of his angry voicemail last week. LePage says he won’t resign.
LePage is referring to the drug traffickers whom he mentioned at a town hall meeting last week which spurred the race-related comments that triggered the media attention. But the host cited space concerns and the event was canceled.
Governor LePage has apologized to Representative Gattine and his family as well as to the people of Maine. Bennett says LePage has demonstrated his commitment to the state by focusing on issues such as economic growth.
Rally organizer Betsy Sweet stands on a picnic table giving a speech at the start of a rally to protest recent remarks by Maine Gov. Paul LePage in Capital Park in Augusta, Maine, Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2016. “I’m not an alcoholic, and I’m not a drug addict, and I don’t have mental issues”, he said.
LePage, a second-term governor, said he doesn’t intend to talk to the media anymore, a claim he has made before.
LePage apologized personally to the Democratic lawmaker, state Rep. He said he keeps photos of drug dealers arrested in the state in a binder and it shows 90 percent of them “are black and Hispanic people from Waterbury, Connecticut; the Bronx; and Brooklyn”.
Believing that Gattine was using the word “racist” to describe his behavior was “a terrible thing for me”, he said during a press conference Wednesday.
Some legislators had called for the governor to seek help, and LePage responded Wednesday by saying he was seeking “spiritual guidance” in finding closure.
In a statement, his wife said the family recognizes “the grace and guidance from God can make us stronger in life”. The state House and Senate both adjourned in April, so the leaders would need to agree on the need for a special session before setting any votes calling for LePage’s resignation or censure. LePage has said repeatedly blacks and Hispanics are responsible for fueling Maine’s heroin epidemic.
LePage concluded his voicemail by saying “I am after you” and then told reporters he wished he could go back in time so he could challenge Gattine to a duel and point a gun “right between his eyes”.
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The governor did apologize to him for his voicemail but Gattine still thinks LePage should step down.
