Maine Governor Paul LePage, who made headlines last year for referring to people of color as “the enemy,” is back with a new jaw-dropping installment. LePage takes issue with civil rights icon John Lewis’ criticism of Trump as not a “legitimate president.” LePage doesn’t fault Trump for trashing a legend as “all talk” (seemingly without realizing that Lewis was beaten by police during 1965’s Bloody Sunday in Selma), yet LePage thinks Lewis should sit down and crack a history book.
LePage also believes that Lewis owes Republican presidents a “simple thank you” as well. NBC News relays the admonishment, which LePage made to Maine’s WVOM radio:
“How about John Lewis last week — criticizing the president. You know, I will just say this: John Lewis ought to look at history. It was Abraham Lincoln who freed the slaves. It was Rutherford B. Hayes and Ulysses S. Grant who fought the Jim Crow laws. A simple thank you would suffice.”
Yes, this sorta reads like satire, and LePage somehow managed to outdo actor Rob Schneider’s silly attempt to explain history to Lewis on MLK Day. The star of Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo fame set Twitter aflame by tweeting at Lewis, “Dr. King didn’t give in to his anger or his hurt. That is how he accomplished & won Civil Rights.” No one knows whether Schneider is aware that Lewis marched alongside and “literally sat at the table with” King, and LePage seems equally mystified.
Maybe they should … look at history too. Couldn’t hurt.
(Via NBC Nightly News)