LePage hasn’t directly addressed Malloy’s criticism, but he left an expletive-laden voice mail on the phone of a ME lawmaker who insinuated he was a racist. It hurt my family.
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“We need functioning government, we need a governor who can work with us every day to try and solve these problems and I’m concerned that we can’t go ahead for the next two years and continue to be in the constant cycle”, Gattine said.
LePage was on a ME radio station on Tuesday during a regular interview where he discussed the possibility of stepping down from his position.
“I am looking at all options. But I think it’s gone to a point of pathology with LePage”, Mr. Dutson tells The Christian Science Monitor in a phone interview.
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The voicemail ended with LePage urging Gattine to share it widely “because I am after you”.
Outspoken Republican Gov. Paul LePage, amid political pressure and calls for his resignation, on Tuesday suggested he might be considering stepping aside but hours later seemed to reject the idea, tweeting, “The reports of my political demise are greatly exaggerated”.
State house Democrats took a firmer line, calling on LePage to step down. Drew Gattine’s voicemail last week. “It’s not something that I’ve ever called anybody”, he said. In a press conference on Wednesday (31 August), LePage said: “Maybe in my mind it is semantics, but in his mind, after talking to him it was clear that there was a real difference”. “I’m just not a very good politician”.
The Republican leader of the state House, Ken Fredette, said LePage is accepting responsibility for his actions, and he urged lawmakers to focus on November elections and LePage’s reform agenda.
An NBC crew arrived Tuesday and ran a national television piece that evening with the headline: “Tirade on Tape: Governor under Fire”.
The voicemail at the center of the controversy contained profanity and threats of violence, and prompted quick condemnation. On Tuesday, LePage said he may consider resigning. A small group of LePage critics applauded my comments and gifted me with high-fives on my way out. I want to talk to you. “I want to support civility because I’m anxious about civilization”.
“To the Maine people, today, I am asking for forgiveness”.
“We ask one last time to meet together (on Thursday) to address this crisis together”, Gideon wrote in a Facebook statement posted Wednesday night. Comments the governor made at a Wednesday town hall meeting had come under criticism, after LePage said that 90 percent of the photos in a binder of drug dealer arrests in 2016 were of people of color, according to the Portland Press Herald – not the first time he has been accused of fixating on suspects’ race. “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’ve spent my life helping black people and you little son of a — socialist.
The governor initially stood by his statements, saying they were warranted because Gattine had called him “the absolute worst, most vile thing”.
LePage said he’s had “long chats” with Christie and Florida GOP Gov. Rick Scott.
“To whomever it was, I’m not an alcoholic and I’m not a drug addict”.
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Steve Mistler reports on Gov. Paul LePage.
