It looks like the governor of Maine, Paul LePage won’t be attending the upcoming ceremonies marking the Dr. Martin Luther King holiday. The governor’s declined invitations from the NAACP, which LePage dismisses as “a special interest…and I’m not going to be held hostage by special interests.”

The governor’s director of communications, Dan Demeritt, told Maine television station WCSH-TV LePage has personal commitments on Sunday and will be attending the funeral of a state trooper on Monday.

But the governor was a bit more blunt–and klassy–when he spoke to reporters at a meeting of business leaders in Sanford, insisting that despite criticism, he’s not biased, and after all, his adopted son is black:

“Tell ’em to kiss my butt. If they want to play the race card, come to dinner and my son will talk to them.”

Watch the story here, from WCSH:

As Florida’s legislative session began yesterday, protesters across the state organized “Awake the State” rallies to protest the cuts Gov. Rick Scott’s budget proposals. One protest in Sarasota got a surprise guest in the form of Stephen King. The author gave a speech of support and railed against Scott, comparing he, Wisconsin’s Gov. Scott Walker, and the “Tea Party guy” from his home state of Maine, Gov. Paul LePage, to “Larry, Curly, and Moe.”

One of King’s main points was about tax cuts for the wealthy.

“Now, you might say, ‘What are you doing up there? Aren’t you rich?’ The answer is, ‘Thank God, yes.’

…

And you know what? As a rich person, I pay 28% taxes. What I want to ask you is, why don’t I pay 50%? Why is everybody in my bracket not paying 50%? The Republicans will say, from John Boehner to Mitch McConnell to Rick Scott, that we can’t do that because, if we tax guys like me, there won’t be any jobs. It’s bull! It’s total bull!”

At the end of his speech, one of the protesters yelled out that King should use Rick Scott as the star of his next horror novel. He replied that he should maybe do just that.

(h/t Reddit)

Check out this (very sunny) video taken by someone in attendance:

Maine Governor Paul LePage has not been making friends with labor workers and unions recently. However, having successfully antagonized flesh and blood workers, LePage has now set his sight on the horrible paint and canvas ones as well. In a move that worker advocates described as “mean spirited,” LePage has decided to take down a 36-foot mural that depicts Maine’s labor history from the walls of the state’s Department of Labor. The reason? He decided it was too “one-sided in favor of unions.”

From the New York Times:

The three-year-old mural has 11 panels showing scenes of Maine workers, including colonial-era shoemaking apprentices, lumberjacks, a ‘Rosie the Riveter’ in a shipyard and a 1986 paper mill strike. Taken together, his administration deems these scenes too one-sided in favor of unions.

A spokeswoman said Mr. LePage, a Republican, ordered the mural removed after several business officials complained about it and after the governor received an anonymous fax saying it was reminiscent of ‘communist North Korea where they use these murals to brainwash the masses.’

‘The Department of Labor is a state agency that works very closely with both employees and employers, and we need to have a décor that represents neutrality,’ said Mr. LePage’s spokeswoman, Adrienne Bennett.”

This situation kind of reminds me of an old joke by Louis C.K. (NSFW clip). Ok, stick with me for a second now because this is going to seem like a stretch.

In the bit, C.K. describes going to a foreign grocery store and realizing that some people eat the genitals of ducks. Sitting there, looking at the food, C.K. couldn’t help but think, “Can we possibly dominate a species more than that? Than that we’re selling their vaginas in a f**king barrel?” He explains that he imagines ducks seeing this and saying, “Dudes, you won the war. Take it easy.”

I know this seems unrelated, but that’s the way I feel about LePage’s decision. Dude, you cut the budgets. Take it easy. You really don’t need to take down a mural of laborers that sitting, quite appropriately I would say, in the Department of Labor.

LePage’s spokeswoman promised that the mural would be hung in a museum since the Governor “respects history.” As of yet, there is still no word on where the union’s vagina barrel will go.

Maine Governor Paul LePage spoke on Sunday at his state’s GOP convention. He addressed a range of topics including energy and job creation, and also specifically noted the need for welfare reform. His message to able-bodied, unemployed Americans was, “Get off the couch and get yourself a job.”

LePage, at that point in his speech, was appealing to the state legislature, elaborating on the need to fix the welfare system. “Maine’s welfare program is cannibalizing the rest of state government. To all you able-bodied people out there: Get off the couch and get yourself a job,” he said.

He added that he has experience with the welfare system. “I understand welfare because I lived it,” LePage said. “I understand the difference between a want and a need. The Republican Party promised to bring welfare change. We must deliver on this promise.”

The Huffington Post notes that LePage has been pushing for welfare reform for some time now, with Democrats criticizing him for including disability to MaineCare (Medicaid) as part of welfare.

As one might expect, the response to his comments wasn’t all cheers and applause. Mike Tipping, communications director for the Maine People’s Alliance, called the remarks “downright offensive” to those who are searching for work in a difficult economy — particularly “considering his embarrassing record of failing to invest in programs that create jobs and cutting assistance for the unemployed while at the same time giving massive new tax breaks to the wealthy.”

Christine Hastedt, public policy director at Maine Equal Justice Partners, voiced a similar sentiment. She called them “a gross insult to working people who get up every day and become discouraged by the end of the day, because there’s not a job for them.”

Take a look at a portion of his speech:

(H/T Huffington Post)

Maine Gov. Paul LePage made headlines recently when he criticized the Affordable Care Act — deeming the Internal Revenue Service the “new Gestapo.” The remark stemmed from the controversial individual mandate that requires Americans to buy health insurance or pay a fee. On Thursday, LePage apologized for the Holocaust comparison, while also reinforcing it.

“The Holocaust is probably a bad example. Americans should not forget that it did happen,” he said to Seven Days, a Vermont weekly. “I apologize to the Jewish Americans who feel offended. I also apologize to the Japanese Americans who were put in prison during World War II and I also apologize to those people who were accused of being Communists under McCarthyism, because that’s not the American way.”

LePage went on to say, “What I’m trying to say is that the Holocaust was a horrific crime against humanity and, frankly, I would never want to see that repeated.” He then added, “Maybe the IRS is not quite as bad. Yet.”

He had the following exchange with the reporter, Paul Heintz:

Heintz: “Do you have a sense of what the Gestapo actually did during World War II?”
LePage: “Yeah. They killed a lot of people.”
Heintz: “So the IRS is headed in that direction?”
LePage: “Yeah.”
Heintz: “They’re headed in the direction of killing a lot of people?”
LePage: “Yeah.”
Heintz: “Are you serious?”
LePage: “I’m very serious […] I’m saying the federal government is taking away the freedom of Americans to make choices.”

In the original comment, which landed LePage in hot water, he said:

This decision has made America less free. We the people have been told there is no choice. You must buy health insurance or pay the new Gestapo — the IRS.

This is the second time LePage has revisited that remark. The first time, he released the following statement:

It was not my intent to insult anyone, especially the Jewish Community, or minimize the fact that millions of people were murdered.

Clearly, what has happened is that the use of the word Gestapo has clouded my message. Obamacare is forcing the American people to buy health insurance or else pay a tax. Our health care system is moving toward one that rations care and negatively impact millions of Americans.

We no longer are a free people. With every step that Obamacare moves forward, our individual freedoms are being stripped away by the Federal Government. This should anger all Americans.

In the Seven Days interview, LePage said those “rations” are why he’s concerned the IRS is heading in a direction that will kill people. “Rationing. They ration health care in Canada and that’s why a lot of people in Canada come down to the U.S.,” he said.

Maine Democratic Party chairman Ben Grant responded to Thursday’s comments, questioning whether LePage is “fit to hold office.” Via Seven Days:

“It took me about 15 minutes to get my jaw up off the floor. I was speechless,” Grant said after listening to LePage’s remarks. “We’re used to Gov. LePage spouting off with insensitive, offensive remarks. But what he said today, he’s basically put all his chips in the middle of the table on the side of totally unhinged conspiracy theories. I think we really have to question at this point whether he’s fit to hold office. It’s that serious.”

UPDATE: LePage issued a formal apology on Friday, per the Associated Press. He said it was “it was “never my intent to insult or to be hurtful to anyone, but rather express what can happen by overreaching government.” LePage went on to say:

“The acts of the Holocaust were nothing short of horrific. Millions of innocent people were murdered, and I apologize for my insensitivity to the word and the offense some took to my comparison of the IRS and the Gestapo,” the governor said.

Take a listen, via Seven Days:

(H/T Seven Days)

Maine Governor Paul LePage, no stranger to the controversial remark, had some words for Democratic State Senator Troy Jackson, of Allagash, whom he is battling over the state’s budget.

“Senator Jackson claims to be for the people but he’s the first one to give it to the people without providing Vaseline,” LePage told Portland station WMTW.

After his comment, LePage began to walk away, screamed, “Dammit,” and returned to the camera to try to walk it back. “That comment is not politically correct, but we’ve got to understand who this man is,” he said. “This man is a bad person. He doesn’t only have no brains, he has a black heart.”

Jackson and LePage are dueling in part over Medicaid expansion. LePage, a Republican in an otherwise blue state, had earlier vetoed a budget containing the plan, which would have expanded Medicaid to 70,000 Maine residents. On Tuesday, Democrats in the Maine legislature fell one vote short of overriding LaPage’s veto.

“They are smoking the Maine people,” LePage said of Maine’s legislature, “and the Maine people are buying it.”

Watch the interview here:

[h/t WMTW]

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>> Follow Evan McMurry (@evanmcmurry) on Twitter

According to two unnamed Maine lawmakers, Gov. Paul LePage told a group of Republicans last week that President Obama “hates white people.” The Portland Press Herald’s Eric Russell reported the story Monday, writing that the two lawmakers, both Republicans “confirmed the comment” but “asked that their names be withheld for fear of political retribution.”

The context of LePage’s comment apparently concerned the president’s legacy, with the Republican governor saying Obama could have been a great president if he had emphasized his “biracial heritage.” The reason LePage gave for why Obama has not done is because he “hates white people.”

“Yeah, he said it,” one of the lawmakers to the Press Herald. “It was one little thing from a speech, but I think most people there thought it was totally inappropriate.” State Reps. Alex Willette and Larry Dunphy, who attended the event and did give their names, said that if the governor did make the comments, they didn’t hear it.

“It seems farfetched for anyone, even a newspaper, to make an insinuation the governor is racist given his life history,” LePage’s senior political adviser Brent Littlefield said in a statement denying the remarks.

And on Tuesday, LePage was confronted by reporters about the comments at the State House, claiming, “I never said that. You guys are all about gossip.”

The governor, who took office in 2011, has a history of making provocative remarks surrounding race on the record, such as the time he declined the NAACP’s invitation to attend a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day celebration, telling the organization to “kiss my butt.”

Watch LePage make those remarks to WCSH below:

[photo via Portland Press Herald]

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>> Follow Matt Wilstein (@TheMattWilstein) on Twitter

In a discussion about disrespectful statements allegedly made by Maine Gov. Paul LePage about President Barack Obama, Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen said on CNN that LePage is indicative of the GOP’s problem with minority voters. Noting that the GOP has “a couple of racist governors,” Rosen also insisted that the media is more moved to indignation over Republican misstatements on race because their “policies connect with denigrating minorities.”

This week, reports circulated that Gov. LePage accused Obama of “hating white people.” LePage denies that he ever made that remark, though the Maine governor has a history of making inflammatory statements.

“Yes, they’ve got a couple of racist governors,” Rosen said.

“A couple?” CNN host Jake Tapper interrupted.

“Well, at least one,” Rosen clarified.

RELATED: MSNBC Panel Concedes Double Standard With Nikki Haley: If GOPer Leveled Attack, ‘We Would Have Led With It’

The Washington Examiner reporter Philip Klein later said that the trajectory of stories like this in the media usually consists of members of the press seeking out Republican officeholders and asking them for their comment about LePage’s statement on the record. He noted that Democrats almost never receive the same treatment from mainstream press outlets.

“It’s not really, necessarily, about the personal slurs,” Rosen opined. “It’s because the policies they’re espousing connect with denigrating minorities, and I think that’s why republicans get it more.”

With this assertion, the CNN panel exploded. However, the segment ended without any of the panel guests being able to respond to Rosen’s comment.

Watch the clip below via CNN:

> >Follow Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) on Twitter

Fox anchor Shepard Smith noticed a pattern between the two governors who have attempted to place a mandatory quarantine on Kaci Hickox: They’re both attempting to boost their political standing for upcoming elections.

Upon returning from West Africa last week, New Jersey’s Republican Gov. Chris Christie (“Who is looking at 2016 potentially,” Smith noted) attempted to place the Ebola nurse under a mandatory quarantine. After several days in a quarantine tent, Hickox returned to her home in Maine, where that state’s Republican Gov. Paul LePage (“Up for re-election, and it’s tight as can be,” said Smith) is pushing for a mandatory quarantine but facing some legal challenges.

During Smith’s report on the situation, the cameras went into “Shep’s Take” mode, slowing zooming in on the anchor as he delivered the following sermon on the matter:

Think about what has happened here. A doctor goes to Africa to help stop a crisis so that it doesn’t come here and so that she can help people. She comes home, she’s not sick at all — a nurse, a health professional. She comes home, she’s not sick at all. As you know by now, if you don’t have symptoms you cannot give Ebola to someone else. And even if you do have symptoms, [the other person] has to be in direct contact with your bodily fluids.

So she’s out in the middle of nowhere place in Maine and there’s an election going on. And the polls show that the people are very much for the government telling the people that they can’t do something for absolutely no reason. That’s what’s happened. And she’s like, ‘Are you crazy? I’ll do what I want. You’re punishing me for helping out with this situation? And I have to stay home why again? There’s nothing wrong with me.’ It’s flat weird.

Watch below, via Fox:

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>> Follow Andrew Kirell (@AndrewKirell) on Twitter

Suicide is a touchy subject, so it’s no wonder that Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) raised some eyebrows when he joked Monday that a local newspaper columnist will need to be put “on suicide watch” after Election Day.

Bill Nemitz, an op-ed writer for the Portland Press Herald and a critic of LePage, was the target of that joke.

“I want to put Bill Nemitz on a suicide watch,” LePage said during a rally, according to the Associated Press. “We’ve got to make sure that for the next 24 hours that he doesn’t go anywhere near the new Bucksport bridge.”

The audience cheered and laughed, the AP reported.

Just a taste of the type of thorn Nemitz has been in the side of LePage, who is up for reelection (via Nemitz’s latest column):

Here’s a counterintuitive solution to Maine’s not-really-Ebola crisis:

Take Gov. Paul LePage, Health and Human Services Commissioner Mary Mayhew and Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director Sheila Pinette and lock them in a remote cabin somewhere in Aroostook County.

It’s the best way to prevent their ignorance from infecting the entire state of Maine.

Nemitz replied to the joke using his Twitter account. “Hey Big Guy [LePage]… Suicide watch? As if! Don’t flatter yourself,” he tweeted.

We’ve reached out to Nemitz to be sure he will not need to be placed on suicide watch after the election and also to ask whether he’ll continue hammering away at LePage, without the inconvenience of a straight jacket.

Hey Big Guy @lepage2014… Suicide watch? As if! Don't flatter yourself. #mepolitics

— Bill Nemitz (@BillNemitz) November 4, 2014

[Photo via Maryland governor’s office, Twitter @BillNemitz]

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>> Follow Eddie Scarry (@eScarry) on Twitter

Earlier today, horror novelist and symbol of Maine Stephen King tweeted out the following:

Governor Paul LePage implied that I don't pay my taxes. I do. Every cent. I think he needs to man up and apologize.

— Stephen King (@StephenKing) March 20, 2015

And the world went, what?! Stephen King is in a feud with the Republican governor of Maine? How did this happen? Is there a doppelgänger involved?!

Let’s explain: LePage, who’s been campaigning to kill the state’s income tax for the past year, recently went on a radio show to push the details of his plan, and used Stephen King as an example of how the income tax, implemented by the former Democrat governor, drove Mainers away from the state to live elsewhere. “Well, today former Governor Ken Curtis lives in Florida where there is zero income tax,” LePage said during his weekly radio address. “Stephen King and Roxanne Quimby [the founder of Burt’s Bees] have moved away, as well.” (His plan involves reducing the state’s income tax and replacing that revenue with an increase in sales and service taxes.)

King, a prolific Democrat donor, hit back yesterday on his own radio station. Via the Portland Press-Herald:

On Thursday, King, the author of 55 novels, many with a horror theme, sent a response to The Pulse AM 620 radio station in Bangor, which he owns, to set the record straight.

“Governor LePage is full of the stuff that makes the grass grow green,” King said. “Tabby (King’s wife, Tabitha) and I pay every cent of our Maine state income taxes, and are glad to do it. We feel, as Governor LePage apparently does not, that much is owed from those to whom much has been given. We see our taxes as a way of paying back the state that has given us so much. State taxes pay for state services. There’s just no way around it. Governor LePage needs to remember there ain’t no free lunch.”

LePage’s team hurriedly deleted the reference to King and Quimby from the webpage with a transcript of the governor’s weekly address, but so far, LePage hasn’t issued an apology.

Which now means that he is going to die by the hand of Randall Flagg.

[h/t TPM]
[Image via Featureflash / Shutterstock.com]

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>> Follow Tina Nguyen (@Tina_Nguyen) on Twitter

There is an ongoing feud between horror writer Stephen King and the Republican governor of Maine, because of course there is. Last week, Governor Paul LePage talked about his plan to abolish the state income tax, citing how some Maine residents have moved away as a result of the tax in the first place.

He singled out King, and the author fired back on Twitter, saying he does pay his taxes in the state of Maine.

King called on LePage to apologize. But based on comments the governor made yesterday, he has no intention of doing so. First, on Wednesday, LePage said that King was “gilding the lily and playing with semantics.” He insisted he never said that King didn’t pay his taxes:

“I never said that, sir, so I’m not going to apologize. I never said Stephen King did not pay income taxes. What I said was, Stephen King’s not in Maine right now. That’s what I said. How the papers report it, I don’t know.”

And yesterday, at another event, LePage joked, “Just make me the villain of your next book and I won’t charge you royalties.”

[h/t TPM]
[image via Featureflash/Shutterstock, Wikimedia Commons]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

Maine Gov. Paul LePage‘s local budget forum descended into chaos Thursday evening when a former Democratic lawmaker verbally confronted the governor and tossed a jar of Vaseline at him before being escorted away by police.

Former State Rep. Joanne Twomey stood up during the event and had a contentious exchange with LePage about his proposal to slash taxes, reports the Portland Herald-Press. When the pair’s conversation became outwardly hostile, the former legislator approached the stage, which immediately prompted security officials to apprehend her. During their tussling, she tossed a jar of Vaseline at LePage, and it landed near his feet.

So why Vaseline? The Herald-Press explained:

LePage sparked a media frenzy in June 2013 when he made a crude sexual remark involving Vaseline while criticizing a Democratic state senator.

[…] After the meeting, Twomey said she planned to hand the jar of Vaseline to the governor, but tossed it when security guards pulled her from the stage. In a high-profile incident while lawmakers were finalizing the state’s last two-year budget in 2013, LePage told a camera crew that a Democratic state senator “claims to be for the people, but he’s the first one to give it to the people without providing Vaseline.”

Twomey was thrown out of the event and LePage reportedly exited the stage immediately after the incident. The ex-lawmaker was not charged with a crime.

Watch the incident below, via YouTube:

[h/t TPM]
[Image via YouTube/screengrab]

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Republican Maine Governor Paul LePage apologized Monday for jokingly telling a high school student that he wanted to shoot his father.

The 17-year-old student Nick Danby was the son of local cartoonist George Danby, who is typically critical of LePage’s governorship. At the annual gathering of the youth leadership program Dirigo Boys State, LePage realized the two were related when the younger Danby asked a critical question, and joked “I’d like to shoot George Danby.”

But a month later after the comments began picking up steam in the Maine media, LePage wrote Nick a handwritten personal apology.

The younger Danby accepted the apology. “I wanted to respond by telling you that I was not offended — I thought they were quite humorous — nor was I the one who reported the incident — I think in many respects you were simply representing the feelings of many Mainers,” he responded.

[Image via Maine Governor’s Office]
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>>Follow Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) on Twitter

Listen, we get it, that’s a loaded headline. For those of you who clicked through to the article asking yourselves what the hell we were referencing, it’s sort of a bizarre see-it-to-believe-it type of situation. Let’s start with the who: Republican Maine Governor Paul LePage spoke at a town hall in Bridgton, Maine on Wednesday and addressed a crowd about the heroic epidemic endangering Maine.

In the 25-second clip, you can see Governor LePage — who has been in office since 2011 — detail to the crowd the ways in which out-of-state drug dealers visit the Pine Tree State to do their dirty dealing of the drugs, and then to add insult in injury, they impregnate white girls (yes, white girls specifically).

Governor LePage says in the video (the ridiculous names are emphasized by me):

“The traffickers — these aren’t people that take drugs. These are guys with that are named D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty, these types of guys, that come from Connecticut and New York. They come up here, they sell their heroin, they go back home. Incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young, white girl before they leave, which is a real sad thing because then we have another issue we that we’ve go to deal with down the road.”

Most of the way through the Governor’s statement (somewhere around the whole “impregnate a young, white girl” part) an audible gasp can be heard from a woman in the audience. Way to go Governor, you connected with your audience: the first goal of successful oratory.

Not that I know too many drug dealers here in New York, but if I did, I could be reasonably sure that none of them would willingly go to Maine of all places to A) sell their drug products and B) impregnate white women and leave in time to miss rush hour on the FDR. However, I’m not the Governor of Maine sitting on four solid years of executive experience — Governor LePage may know a bit more about this world than I do. Either way, thankfully we all have this clip to watch to warn us about the dangers of those no-good-cats D-Money, Smoothie, and Shifty.

Stay alert out there, friends.

[image via screengrab]
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>> Follow J.D. Durkin on Twitter (@MediaiteJD)

Maine Governor and Chris Christie endorser Paul LePage stepped in it Wednesday when he expelled a statement that was racist even by Trump-era standards. LePage thought he had sufficiently encoded the racism by using names like D-Money, Smoothie, and Shifty to denote the scary drug-dealing out-of-towners without actually saying “nigras,” but blew it on the dismount when he specified that these characters like to “impregnate a young, white girl” on their way back to the ghetto.

On Friday morning’s News One Now, anchor Roland Martin replayed LePage’s remarks for panelists Andrew Lee, Angela Peoples, and Dr. Cleo Manago, and while Dr. Manago gets the runner-up spot for his suggestion that Martin start up a “When White Folks Freestyle” segment, it was Roland’s wordless slow burn that took top prize. Later in the clip, though, he made a devastating point about this year’s election:

“Just deal with the fact that you got some white folks in your state with heroin problems. Here’s what still gets me, I’m looking at all these people who were just trashing crack mothers and black folks taking crack in the 80s, 90s, 2000s, present day. But all of a sudden, now we got white kids dropping left and right in Mew Hampshire and Maine and Vermont because of heroin, now it’s ‘We should really be compassionate.'”

Roland’s insight gets at a couple of different disturbing truths about our politics, the first being the degree to which a politician’s compassion extends beyond his front door. For example, Chris Christie is getting all kinds of credit for his compassionate talk about drug addiction, but he’s flat-out telling voters that he only came to care about this issue because it destroyed his rich white friend’s life. He’s still campaigning against black people, and for “aggressive policing.”

Particularly with Republicans, if your situation doesn’t directly enter some rich, powerful white man’s field of vision, you are out of luck, and if you’re gay, you might still be out of luck. If you’re a woman, forget about it.

But when it comes to policies that disproportionately affect black people, even Democrats have spent decades mining black votes while campaigning against black interests to retain power. It is amazing that Hillary Clinton is now campaigning on many of these issues, but it literally took the blood of martyrs and an army of video cameras just to give her cover to do that.

But here’s something else Hillary Clinton is campaigning on: drug addiction, and part of the reason is that, like Chris Christie, I’m sure, she kept on hearing from voters in New Hampshire what a huge issue this has become for them. She says she hadn’t planned on this, was surprised to hear it, and at a certain level, it is commendable that Hillary was responsive enough to incorporate it into her campaign. And I’m not knocking Christie or Hillary for doing so, because regardless of their reasons for caring, there is considerable political risk in being “soft on crime” by supporting treatment over incarceration.

But it is an inescapable conclusion that this issue would not be getting this sort of attention were it not for the fact that New Hampshire is the first in the nation primary state, just as no one would give half a good rip about ethanol were it not for Iowa’s first caucus status. I’ve heard a lot of griping about the “nationalization” of this year’s election (particularly on MSNBC, as a way to slam rival networks’ debate criteria), but if you care about having a government that represents everyone, maybe it’s not such a bad thing to wrest some of the influence away from two states whose black population can be doubled by bringing in Roland Martin and his panel.

Governor Paul LePage held a press conference today to try out some damage control over comments he made about drug dealers constantly trying to knock up white women in Maine. Not surprisingly, LePage has come under fire from many who believe the comments had racist undertones.

The trouble began when LePage said at a town hall meeting that “guys with the name D-Money, Smoothie” and “Shifty” come from out of state to sell drugs, and they “impregnate a young, white girl before they leave.” LePage said today that he didn’t know the race of the hypothetical dealers he listed off, and said reporters should “get your heads out of the sands.”

“Instead of saying ‘Maine women’ I said ‘white women’ and I’m not going to apologize to the Maine women for that,” LePage said, because “if you go to Maine, you’ll see that we’re essentially 95% white.”

When the discussion eventually turned to whether he should apologize to African Americans, LePage shot back that just because he used street names doesn’t mean he automatically connoted which race they were.

“I get a report, and they’re saying his street name ‘D-Money,’ street name ‘Smoothie.’ I don’t know where they’re from,” LePage said. “I know where they’re from, I don’t know if they’re white, black, Asian, I don’t know. If you want to make it racist, go right ahead and do what you want.”

As Huffington Post reported, LePage has a tense relationship with state media, and he slammed reporters for pushing the racial aspect of his comments over his broader calls for action against the heroin epidemic. “You are in the back pocket of the Maine bloggers. Shame on you. Shame, shame, shame,” said LePage.

Later in the conference, LePage apologized for potentially using the wrong set of words for women, explaining “my brain was slower than my mouth.”

“If I slipped up and used the wrong word, I apologize to Maine women,” LePage said.

[h/t Buzzfeed]
[Image via screengrab]

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>> Follow Ken Meyer (@KenMeyer91) on Twitter

Republican Governor Paul LePage (R-ME) has at least one friend left in the world after his racist comment about drug dealers who like to “impregnate a young white girl” on the way out of town sparked outrage. The remark was followed by an apology in which LePage admitted he should have said “Maine women,” but thought he had covered himself sufficiently by reciting stereotypical street names for the drug dealers instead of saying “black” out loud.

That friend is Governor and Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie, whom LePage endorsed last year, and whom Christie defended Monday morning on Morning Joe. Christie was impressed by LePage’s apology, and still thinks LePage is a “good man”:

CHRIS CHRISTIE: I, I, listen, I heard Paul’s remarks. And, and, and, and frankly, you know, he’s apologized for them. And so if we’re going to wind up holding, judging everybody in this society–

JOE SCARBOROUGH: Those were pretty–

CHRIS CHRISTIE: –but–

JOE SCARBOROUGH: –offensive remarks–

CHRIS CHRISTIE: Well–

JOE SCARBOROUGH: –were they not?

CHRIS CHRISTIE: But, but, Joe, but here’s the, sure. But here’s the thing. We can’t judge people– by one set of remarks they make. Especially when those people apologize and genuinely apologize afterwards. And so from my perspective, Paul LePage is a good friend of mine.

He’s an outspoken guy. We all know that he shoots from the hip. And when he does that, there are gonna be times when he says things that even he– in retrospect thinks he shouldn’t have said. That, I could tell you this. Paul LePage had a brutally tough upbringing.

Understands the challenges of poverty. Understands the challenges of lack of education. And, and he feels that in his soul. He was tryin’ to help people through the comments he made who are being challenged by drug addiction and have another barrier being put up against him.

I’m sure if you went to Paul today and he were sitting in this chair, he would admit that he would change his words. But it doesn’t change a bit for me my affection for him. My respect for him as a leader and as a person. He’s a good man and he’s apologized. And every one of us, me and everybody else who’s in public life says things at times they wish they could take back.

Christie’s defense of LePage isn’t surprising, given the sort of White Resentment Starkiller Base he’s up against, and the support he’s counting on from New Englanders to remain a factor in this race beyond New Hampshire. It should escape no one’s notice, though, that notwithstanding Donald Trump‘s virtuoso performance as the Yoyo Ma of the dog whistle, Chris Christie hasn’t been too shabby in that orchestra his own self.

Time to check in with Maine and find out what is going on in the saga of Governor Paul LePage! To review, he cautioned the residents against letting “guys with that are named D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty” come into the state to traffic heroin and “impregnate a young, white girl.” He got backlash, he was unapologetic, he received support from the guy who founded Louisiana’s chapter of the KKK. All caught up? Great! There’s more! There will keep being more because a recent attempt to impeach this guy failed in the House!

Believe it or not, the questionable statements on young white girls weren’t LePage’s only offense. In fact, the impeachment order cited eight allegations of inappropriate behavior. One of those allegations was that he pressured an education organization into the Democratic Speaker of the House as its president by threatening to block state funding to one of its charter schools.

In spite of all of the alleged bad behavior, even the Democrats of the House were uneasy with the impeachment order. A postponement measure was introduced by House Republican Minority Leader Kenneth Fredette. It passed 96-52.

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For more from Lindsey, follow her on Twitter.

In a radio interview with WVOM, Republican Maine Governor Paul LePage endorsed the death penalty for drug traffickers, saying the state should even bring back the guillotine.

The eccentric governor said he thought the death penalty was warranted for “people who kill Mainers… Actually, if you want my opinion, we should give them an injection of the stuff they sell.”

LePage interupted hosts after they moved on to go even further. “What we ought to do is bring the guillotine back,” he said. “We could have public executions and could even have which hole it falls in.”

“I like French history” he said by way of explanation.

LePage is notorious for making over-the-top and controversial statements. Earlier this month, LePage was denounced for complaining that drug traffickers with names like “D-Money” and “Shifty” always to try to “impregnate young white girls.” Those comments earned him an impeachment attempt from the state house.

Listen above, via WVOM.

[Image via screengrab]
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