The majority leader of Maine’s House of Representatives wrote to elected officials from Lowell and Lawrence Tuesday to disagree with comments made Monday by Maine Gov. Paul LePage, who said drug dealers from Lowell and Lawrence are supplying Maine with opiates.
Advertisement
Sen. Thomas McGee of Lynn, chair of the state Democratic Party, called LePage’s comments Monday at a conference in Boston “outrageous” and offensive to residents of MA. “I’m not saying I am going to finish it”.
“I was Donald Trump before Donald Trump became popular”, LePage said at the time, saying that the wealthy NY businessman and reality TV star “could be one of the greatest presidents if he sits down and puts together a good team”.
He said he’s going to meet with family and close advisers to decide what to do next.
In last week’s voicemail, LePage called Gattine a “little son-of-a-bitch, socialist cocksucker” and encouraged him to share the message publicly “because I am after you”. Drew Gattine, D-Westbrook. The governor said his wife and daughter have since been receiving vile and pornographic photos and e-mails.
Paul LePage, the Republican governor of ME, is an unusual character, even for a politician.
Democratic lawmakers have warned that LePage is coming unhinged, and they called for a political intervention.
State Senate President Michael Thibodeau and other Republican legislative leaders late Tuesday convened a closed-door meeting with LePage to discuss his future.
Maine Gov. Paul LePage says he will not hold a public a town hall meeting as planned in the hometown of a Democratic legislator he targeted with an obscene voicemail rant.
At a town hall in North Berwick on August 24, he said he keeps photos of drug dealers arrested in the state in a binder and claims it shows that 90 percent of them “are black and Hispanic people from Waterbury, Connecticut; the Bronx; and Brooklyn”.
Though he initially declined to rule out a resignation, LePage paraphrased Mark Twain later Tuesday when he tweeted “the reports of my political demise are greatly exaggerated”.
“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 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”. Later, LePage told reporters that he would like to challenge Gattine to duel and shoot him right between his eyes.
LePage on Tuesday said the photos in his binder come from press reports of drug arrests, not scientific data. It’s another thing not to have any party behind you, ‘ as both Democrats and Republicans tsk-tsked LePage for his incendiary remarks. But any possible ramifications against LePage – who has repeatedly avoided punishment and retained his base of political support – are unclear.
Advertisement
Last night, the governor met with his party’s leadership from the House and Senate. Leaders had earlier called for “corrective action” on LePage’s part but didn’t elaborate on what that might be.
