Gov. Paul LePage appearing on Bangor radio station WVOM August 30, 2016.
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LePage, in Boston for a conference with other New England governors and Canadian premiers, doubled down on comments he made last week, claiming to have a three-ring binder of mug shots of alleged drug dealers, of which he said 90 percent were black or Hispanic.
The Maine Republican repeatedly apologized to the Democratic state lawmaker, Rep.
One of the hosts referred to an interview during his first term when LePage said he is not a quitter. He said he still has the energy to tackle his policy issues, but if he has “lost my ability to convince the ME people that’s what we need. maybe it is the time to move on”. “What I’m going to do right now is I’m taking one step at a time”. He said his daughter has been “harassed enormously”. The Democratic National Committee has called upon the Republican presidential nominee to publicly denounce LePage’s comments.
He says he’s going to meet with family and close advisers to decide what to do next. “The next moment, he’s shooting off a tweet saying he didn’t mean it”.
LePage said he left the voicemail for Gattine after hearing that the Westbrook Democrat had called him a racist, which Gattine has publicly denied. Drew Gattine last week, accusing the Democrat of calling him a racist.
Laplante called LePage’s comments “reckless and irresponsible”, saying the opioid crisis affects every neighborhood.
He pins the state’s drug problem on traffickers out of state, who “are guys with the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty, these types of guys”, who “half the time they impregnate a young, white girl before they leave”.
His representatives didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
“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”, LePage said in a statement, according to the Washington Post.
The Portland Press Herald reported this morning that LePage “raised the possibility” of resigning during an interview today. He later said he had misspoke and meant to say all “Maine women” not only “Maine’s white women”. He said of the drug dealers, “These are guys with the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty – these types of guys – they come from CT and NY, they come up here, they sell their heroin, they go back home”. LePage added that in his state of 1.3 million people, a grand total of four Mainers wrote to him, urging him to resign.
LePage had previously singled out Waterbury and New York City.
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ME does not have a lieutenant governor, so if LePage were to step down, the president of the state’s senate, Republican Michael Thibodeau, would take over.
