If you don’t live in New England, then you probably never heard of Maine Governor Paul LePage, himself an ardent Donald Trump supporter. Since 2011, the Republican politician has been turning heads in the area with occasional unfortunate comments, and now that Trump’s presidential campaign is in full swing, it seems the governor can’t help but say increasingly outrageous things to criticize his detractors and attract media attention. Case in point, a rather alarming voicemail he left on Democratic State Rep. Drew Gattine’s phone on Thursday.
According to the Portland Press Herald, Gattine and several other state lawmakers decried LePage’s comments earlier this week that “90-plus percent” of Maine’s drug dealers were black or Hispanic. Gattine specifically called LePage a racist, which didn’t sit well with the governor, so he decided to leave him a threatening, profanity-laced message:
“Mr. Gattine, this is Gov. Paul Richard LePage. I would like to talk to you about your comments about my being a racist, you c*cksucker. I want to talk to you. I want you to prove that I’m a racist. I’ve spent my life helping black people and you little son of a b*tch, socialist c*cksucker… I want you to record this and make it public because I am after you. Thank you.”
As direct as LePage was in his message, however, the governor wasn’t satisfied with simply leaving an unanswered voicemail with Gattine. Hence why he invited the Press Herald and a WMTW-TV camera crew to participate in an interview that lasted half an hour. Among other things, LePage wished he could travel back in time to 1825 so that he could challenge Gattine to a duel:
“When a snot-nosed little guy from Westbrook calls me a racist, now I’d like him to come up here because, tell you right now, I wish it were 1825. And we would have 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.”
When reached for comment by the Press Herald, Gattine called LePage’s initial voicemail “upsetting, inappropriate and uncalled for.” He expressed disbelief that Maine’s own governor would say anything of the sort, but instead of adding more fuel to the fire, he tried to focus the remainder of his press exposure to the state’s drug problem. After all, Gattine is the House chair of the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee, and has fought against many of LePage’s drug enforcement and welfare reforms in the past.
Here’s CNN’s report on the matter, which is just bonkers.
(Via Portland Press Herald, WMTW-TV and CNN)