Maine Tea Partier Doubles Down on False, Racist Claim About Blacks and Hispanics, Suggests They Should Be Shot
On Friday, we told you how Maine Tea Party Gov. Paul LePage called Democratic state Rep. Drew Gattine a “c*cksucker” in a voicemail, then threatened violence against him.
LePage came unhinged in response to reports – which Gattine denies – that the lawmaker called the governor racist for claiming that Black and Hispanic people are responsible for 90 percent of the state’s drug arrests.
On Friday, LePage sort of apologized for the voicemail, saying he chose the “worst word I could think of” and only meant the threat as a metaphor.
Then, LePage proceeded to confirm during a press conference that he is, in fact, racist, calling people of color “the enemy” in the drug war and suggesting they should be shot.
“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?” LePage said. “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.”
The Bangor Daily News notes that LePage’s underlying assertion is false, given that 70 percent of state prison inmates who’ve been convicted of drug trafficking are white.
Democratic lawmakers are now calling for LePage’s resignation, saying there needs to be “a political intervention” from both parties so the governor can “get the help he needs.”
LePage is an ardent supporter of Donald Trump, and his daughter recently went to work for the GOP presidential nominee’s campaign in Maine.
“I was Donald Trump before Donald Trump became popular,” LePage said recently.