NEW YORK (AA) – Maine Gov. Paul LePage on Tuesday said he is considering resignation, days after he made racist statements on the fight against drugs and made a profanity-laced retort when criticized.
LePage, who supports Donald Trump for president, told a local radio station early Tuesday he was “looking at all options” regarding his political future.
“If I’ve lost my ability to help Maine people, maybe it’s time to move on,” he said in an interview with WVOM.
He might not be able to finish his second term as governor, he said, amid rising pressure from Democrats and members of his own Republican Party to resign.
In video footage that went viral last week, LePage said blacks and Hispanics were the “enemy” when it comes to combating drug dealers.
“Bad guy’s a bad guy, I don’t care what color it is. When you go to war, if you know the enemy dresses in red and you dress in blue, you shoot at red,” he says in the video.
“You try to identify the enemy. And the enemy right now, the overwhelming majority of people coming in, are people of color or people of Hispanic origin.”
LePage went on to send an expletive-laden voice message to Democratic State Rep. Drew Gattine who accused the governor of racism in a biting critique of his remarks.
“I would like to talk to you about your comments about my being a racist, you (expletive). I want to talk to you. I want you to prove that I’m a racist. I’ve spent my life helping black people,” LePage says in the recording, before challenging Gattine to make the message public.
In an interview after it did become public, LePage said “I wish it were 1825” so he could challenge the Democratic lawmaker to a duel.
The governor apologized repeatedly to Gattine and his family in the interview Tuesday. He said being called a racist for him was “like calling a black man the n-word or a woman the c-word. It just absolutely knocked me off my feet.
“I apologize for that to the people of Maine, but I make no apology for trying to end the drug epidemic that is ravaging our state,” LePage said.
