In the least surprising admission since Shaggy finally ‘fessed up that it was, indeed, him, Maine Governor Paul LePage has come clean about the poorly-hidden meaning behind a self-evidently racist remark he made several weeks ago.

Addressing reporters about the epidemic of drug addiction afflicting the region, LePage made the following observation about certain types of drug dealers, and the white girls they impregnate:

“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.”

LePage would later deny that the remark was racist at all, specifically pointing to the fact that he “never said they were black!”

During a radio interview Tuesday, LePage said they were black:

I had to go scream at the top of my lungs about Black dealers coming in and doing the things that they’re doing to our state. I had to scream about guillotines and those types of things before they were embarrassed into giving us a handful of DEA agents. That is what it takes with this 127th.

File that, not just under “obvious,” but under “Things to Remember Next Time Someone Tries to Deny Their Own Coded Racism.”

(h/t Atlanta Black Star)

After a series of questionable comments put him back in the spotlight, Paul LePage unloaded on a state lawmaker when the Maine governor sent him a threatening and profane voicemail that he challenged him with taking public.

The Maine governor is known for having a bombastic style, and he recently drew attention again for offering questionable comments about race while speaking about drug crime. According to Portland Press Herald, Democratic Rep. Drew Gattine was one of several legislators who called out LePage’s remarks as racist, though Gattine denied doing so later on.

A reporter for Press Herald ended up speaking with LePage and asked for his response to those who’ve given him the “racist” label. Lepage demanded who called him that, and he stormed off after the reporter indicated that he previously spoke with Gattine.

“I would like to talk to you about your comments about my being a racist, you c*cksucker,” LePage said in a message to Gattine. “I want to talk to you. I want you to prove that I’m a racist.”

WARNING: EXPLICIT LANGUAGE.

LePage later invited the Press Herald to his house, where he continued to rail against the “snot-nosed little guy” and say he would’ve loved challenging Gattine to 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 would point it right between his eyes, because he is a snot-nosed little runt and he has not done a damn thing since he’s been in this Legislature to help move the state forward.”

UPDATE – 12:14 p.m. ET: The governor has released a public statement regarding his explosive comments:

.@Governor_LePage issues statement about voicemail he left for Rep. Gattine: pic.twitter.com/d3rgUXPKnK

— Hannah Lilly (@hannah_lilly) August 26, 2016

[Image via screengrab]

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>> Follow Ken Meyer (@KenMeyer91) on Twitter

As Maine Governor Paul LePage endures fallout from controversial comments he made over the past week, he has decided to up the ante once again by apparently referring to Black and Hispanic people as “the enemy.”

The governor of Maine is known for having a brusque way of dealing with people, which was on full display recently when he sent a profane, threatening voice message to a state legislator whom LePage believed called him a racist. The supposed criticism came after LePage said minority groups make up the vast majority of drug dealers in Maine, and he appeared to double down on that statement during a Friday press conference.

Suspected white supremacists governor of Maine Paul LePage stops talking in code & says Blacks are the enemy pic.twitter.com/qupifMd5Dq

— Tariq Nasheed (@tariqnasheed) August 27, 2016

“Look, a bad guy is a bad guy, I don’t care what color it is. When you go to war, if you know the enemy, the enemy dresses in red and you dress in blue, you shoot at red, don’t you? You shoot at the enemy. You try to identify the enemy. And the enemy right now, the overwhelming majority right now coming in are people of color or people of Hispanic origin. I can’t help that. I just can’t help it. Those are the facts.”

Huffington Post reports that LePage also used the event to profusely deny that Maine’s police engages in racial profiling. HuffPo also noted that American Civil Liberties Union of Maine said on Thursday that their research tells them that Black and White people deal drugs at similar rates.

[Image via screengrab]

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>> Follow Ken Meyer (@KenMeyer91) on Twitter

The embattled Republican governor of Maine admitted during a radio show interview this morning that perhaps it’s time to call it quits.

First reported by the Portland Press Herald, the exchange came from Paul LePage on WVOM, a radio station in Bangor, in light of another controversy surrounding a profanity-laced voicemail he left for a state legislator.

LePage said Tuesday, “I’m looking at all options… I think some things I’ve been asked to do are beyond my ability. I’m not going to say that I’m not going to finish it. I’m not saying that I am going to finish it.”

LePage continued, “If I’ve lost my ability to help Maine people, maybe it’s time to move on.”

He also apologized to that sate lawmaker, Rep. Drew Gattine, for the voicemail where the governor casually asserted last week that Gattine was a “son-of-a-bitch socialist cocksucker.” You know, standard state gubernatorial stuff. The tirade stemmed from LePage thinking that Gattine called him a racist.

The governor admitted further Tuesday, “When I was called a racist I just lost it, and there’s no excuse. It’s unacceptable. It’s totally my fault.”

In January, the governor first came under fire for remarks he made at a town hall regarding drug trafficking in and out of the state. He said of the drug dealers, “These are guys with the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty – these types of guys – they come from Connecticut and New York, they come up here, they sell their heroin, they go back home.”

Then, he doubled down just a bit more: “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 have to deal with down the road.”

Most recently — and likely the inciting incident to the Gattine fiasco — was an episode last week where LePage offered, “the enemy right now… are people of color or people of Hispanic origin”.

He heartily continued, “I don’t ask them to come to Maine and sell their poison, but they come and I will tell you that 90-plus percent of those pictures in my book, and it’s a three-ringed binder, are black and Hispanic people from Waterbury, Connecticut, the Bronx and Brooklyn.”

UPDATE – 1:03 a.m. ET: LePage put out a tweet today in response to those who took his interview comments to mean that his resignation is imminent:

Regarding rumors of resignation, to paraphrase Mark Twain: "The reports of my political demise are greatly exaggerated." #mepolitics

— Paul R. LePage (@Governor_LePage) August 30, 2016

Paul LePage is back, baby!

It’s been far too long since we’ve last gotten to write about the embattled Maine Republican Governor who puts his foot in his mouth so often that he could floss with his own shoe laces. He once suggested that Donald Trump “show some authoritarian power” (though later claimed he used the wrong word), casually asserted that an adversary was a “socialist cocksucker,” in a wild voicemail, and alleged that drug dealers by the names D-Money, Smoothie, and Shifty come into Maine for their nefarious activities.

And now, LePage is adding to his collection of best hits by taking on Democratic Georgia Congressman John Lewis, who announced last week that he thinks Trump’s presidency is “illegitimate” and that he would not attend the Inauguration.

During a radio interview with WVOM-FM, LePage asked the Civil Rights leader Lewis to reconsider who really deserves the credit for the successes of racial equality. “I will just say this: John Lewis ought to look at history,” LePage said.

He promptly continued, “It was Abraham Lincoln who freed the slaves, it was Rutherford B. Hayes and Ulysses S. Grant who fought against Jim Crow laws. A simple thank you would suffice.”

The comments were made on the George Hale and Ric Tyler Show.

In the same interview, LePage alleged that Democratic U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine — who also announced she would not attend the Swearing-In ceremony this week — should “resign” her position as a result. Listen above via WVOM-FM.
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This morning, President Donald Trump went on a mini-tweetstorm decrying the removal of monuments to Confederate figures, echoing comments he made earlier in the week when he asked if George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were next as they were slave owners.

Well, one Republican governor and fervent Trump supporter decided to take Trump’s position and turn it up a notch.

In an interview with WGAN-AM today, Maine Governor Paul LePage (R) parroted Trump’s “both sides” comments on the violence in Charlottesville, stating that he condemns both sides and find them “disgusting.” However, when it came to left-wing protesters wanting to take down monuments glorifying the Confederacy, LePage compared them to the “Taliban.”

He also claimed that removing statues of Confederate generals would be akin to getting rid of a 9/11 memorial.

“How can future generations learn if we’re going to erase history? That’s disgusting,” LePage observed. “They should study their history — they don’t even know the history of this country and they are trying to take monuments down.”

The governor added, “Listen, whether we like it or not, this is what our history is. And it’s just — to me, it’s just like going to New York City right now and taking down the monument of those who perished in 9/11. It will come to that.”

LePage is known for shooting from the hip and tossing out controversial and inflammatory rhetoric. He once described “the enemy” as black and Hispanic while talking about drug dealers, adding that you “shoot the enemy.” He also once said that civil rights icon John Lewis should thank white people for civil rights equality.

Listen to the audio above, via WGAN-AM (the relevant part begins around 1:30).

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Justin Baragona on Twitter: @justinbaragona

GovernorPaul LePage (R-ME) has certified the results of a district race, but he did so with commentary calling it a “stolen election.”

Democrat Jared Golden defeated Republican incumbent Bruce Poliquin in Maine’s 2nd district congressional race. The race got some national attention due to the state’s ranked choice system and Poliquin’s lawsuit challenging it.

Poliquin challenged the constitutionality of the system, but a federal judge rejected the argument. The congressman ended up conceding earlier this week.

The outgoing governor signed the election certificate today, but he tweeted, “I’ve signed off on the CD2 election result as it’s no longer in federal court. Ranked Choice Voting didn’t result in a true majority as promised-simply a plurality measured differently. It didn’t keep big money out of politics & didn’t result in a more civil election #mepolitics”

And the certificate itself contains a note from LePage reading “stolen election”:

I’ve signed off on the CD2 election result as it’s no longer in federal court. Ranked Choice Voting didn’t result in a true majority as promised-simply a plurality measured differently. It didn’t keep big money out of politics & didn’t result in a more civil election #mepolitics pic.twitter.com/0fEhD1dvAb

— Paul R. LePage (@Governor_LePage) December 28, 2018

Golden responded in a tweet criticizing the governor:

Not only are the Governor’s comments wrong, this is yet another attempt by the Maine GOP to undermine the will of Mainers, who twice voted to approve RCV. Maine people are tired of this kind of poor leadership — which is why they voted for sweeping change in November. #mepolitics https://t.co/aMDBj1Onnc

— Jared Golden (@golden4congress) December 28, 2018

[image via screengrab]

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)

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

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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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.

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)

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) hosted a major event with top donors and fellow Republican governors as he eyes a potential 2024 presidential run, Politico reported.

DeSantis recently hosted dozens at an event in Ft. Lauderdale as he prepares for reelection and a possible jump into the 2024 field, according to Politico, which cited two people familiar with the event.

Attending the Ft. Lauderdale event were Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, and Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee. Gubernatorial candidates who attended included Sarah Huckabee Sanders, running in Arkansas, Paul LePage, a former governor running again in Maine, as well as Nevada Senate candidate Adam Laxalt.

Lisa Boothe, Josh Hammer, and Buck Sexton were among the conservative commentators who attended the event, which included a speech a DeSantis and a “get to know you” session that included drinks and cigars.

DeSantis has not made any direct significant indication that he will be running for the Republican Party presidential nomination in 2024, though his name is floated as a likely possibility, along with former President Donald Trump, who has teased a possible run multiple times.

A New York Times/Sienna poll released this week showed 49 percent of Republican respondents named Trump as their preferred candidate for 2024, with DeSantis coming in at the runner-up position with 25 percent support.

Trump has already lashed out at the poll, releasing a statement calling the Times “Fake News” and the “enemy of the people,” implying the poll is false.

Asked about DeSantis potentially running in 2024, Trump has said multiple times he has a “good relationship” with the governor but has also taken credit for DeSantis’ rise to the national spotlight.

“I was very responsible for his success because I endorsed him and he went up like a rocket ship,” he told Newsmax last month.

Source: Screenshot.

Maine Republican gubernatorial nominee and former Gov. Paul LePage threatened to “deck” a Democratic staffer.

The Daily Beast first reported the incident on Thursday.

During a campaign stop on Sunday, LePage, who was governor of Maine between 2011 and 2019 and is running for a third term, was filmed walking behind a truck, holding what appears to be a doughnut.

LePage tells off the Democratic staffer.

“Get six feet away or I’m going to deck you,” LePage told the staffer as he pointed at the person behind the camera. “Come into my space, you’re going down.”

“Enough is enough,” he added. “Six feet away.”

Maine Democratic Party Chair Drew Gattine told The Daily Beast that LePage “was, is, and always will be a bully.”

LePage’s campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment from the outlet.

LePage has a history of making profane remarks.

In 2011, he told the NAACP “to kiss my butt.”

In a 2016 vile voicemail to Gattine, in response to being called a racist, LePage called him a “cocksucker,” a “son of a bitch” and a “socialist cocksucker.”

Also in 2016, he used stereotypes to describe drug dealers.

“These are guys with the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty, these types of guys, they come from Connecticut and New York, they come up here, they sell their heroin, they go back home,” he said. “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 have to deal with down the road.”