Combative Maine Governor Paul LePage told a radio host on Tuesday that he was considering not finishing his term in office, amid a wave of criticism after he left a lawmaker a profanity-filled voicemail.
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That’s after LePage responded to a question at a town hall meeting on Wednesday in North Berwick by saying he keeps a binder with information about alleged drug traffickers arrested in ME and more than 90 percent of them are “black and Hispanic people” from out of state. Drew Gattine (gah-TEEN’) because he thought Gattine called him a racist.
“I’m looking at all options”, the Republican governor said while appearing on WVOM, a Bangor talk radio station.
“I think the Maine people are getting extremely concerned after six years and these kind of escalating events with respect to our governor, that he’s not at the point where he isn’t fit to be governor”. I’m not going to say that I’m not going to finish it. “I’m not going to say I am going to finish it”. “If I’ve lost my ability to help Maine people, maybe it’s time to move on”. “We feel that the governor has really demonstrated behaviors, and it’s not just that it’s not appropriate for a governor, it shows that he is not in control of either his emotions or his actions, and yes, we have called for his resignation”.
Jim Cyr, a Thibodeau spokesman, said LePage told the leaders that “he would be speaking with his closest friends and family” about a corrective action and he would get back to leaders Tuesday. Gattine denied it, and Maine Democrats called for LePage to stop repeating the claim. Last week, the governor left a voicemail for a Democratic state legislator in which he called him a homophobic slur.
LePage was only speaking the truth, Scott added, when the governor said most out-of-state drug dealers doing business in ME are not white. The governor said this morning that Republican legislators have made “demands” of him, but LePage didn’t mention any specifics, or whether he’s prepared to meet those “demands”.
He told reporters he would like to engage in a duel with Gattine, a remark he later described as metaphoric.
“I made the comment that black people are trafficking in our state”, he said. He later said that minorities are bringing in heroin while whites are largely responsible for methamphetamine crimes in Maine. Given LePage’s m.o., it seems just as likely the Maine Republican will wait a while, see if the controversy fades from public view, and hope people lose interest in his self-inflicted wounds.
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Thibodeau and House Minority Leader Ken Fredette said Monday they want to meet with LePage before deciding what to do. LePage also said that it’s been a rough summer and that he lost so much sleep over people dying every day and no one doing anything about it.
