Paul LePage the Governor of ME used language that was racially charged to accuse people that are from outside his state of fueling an epidemic of substance abuse, then fleeing to their home after they have impregnated a young girl who is white.
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He told NBC News: “I was going impromptu and my brain didn’t catch up to my mouth”.
He also chastised the assembled reporters, saying, “Get your heads out of the sand, please”.
“The only thing that I’ve heard is if you take a plastic bottle and put it in the microwave and you heat it up, it gives off a chemical similar to estrogen”, he said, according to the Bangor Daily News. “They never said I’m misunderstood”, Christie said at the meeting in Bedford, N.H.
LePage, who was already known for his incendiary rhetoric, said on Friday that he had made a “mistake” and apologized for the comments. “These are guys that are names D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty, these type of guys that come from CT or NY”, he said.
LePage has been under fire for recent comments during a town hall meeting in Bridgton, when in the course of remarks about Maine’s drug crisis, he said drug dealers with nicknames like “Shifty” or “D-Money” were coming to ME and, often, impregnating a “white girl” while here.
In 2013, the Press Herald, citing two unnamed Maine Republican lawmakers, reported that LePage told a group of Republicans that President Obama hates white people.
LePage’s spokesperson defended his boss by saying race was “irrelevant” and Mr LePage did not make comments about race. In response, LePage reportedly joked that he’d like to shoot the cartoonist. LePage has endorsed, and campaigned with, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie as he seeks the Republican nomination for president.
The governor denied making the remark. He said he meant to say “Maine” girls and not “white” girls when he made the “slip-up”. “LePage’s racist rants sadly distract from efforts to address one of our nation’s most pressing problems”, Clinton’s campaign said in a statement, according to MSNBC.
Peter Steele, a spokesperson for Paul LePage stated that the issue is not about race, but the children who are born from ME women having relationships with drug traffickers, and the cost in welfare payments. “What are they, black?”
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In an interview with CBS the day after LePage’s 2014 victory, Christie described him “as just one of the most decent, honorable people I’ve ever met – wears his heart on his sleeve, loves his state, has an awesome personal story”.
