In off-the-cuff remarks at a rally Thursday, Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) accused Democratic lawmakers of wanting to rape Mainers.
“Sen. Jackson” — a lawmaker who gave the Democratic response to the governor’s budget — “claims to be for the people, but he’s the first one to give it to the people without providing Vaseline,” LePage declared at an Augusta event. “He is bad. He has no brains, and he has a black heart,” the governor continued.
LePage and the Democratic legislature are at a standoff after lawmakers approved a budget compromise last week that he has pledged to veto.
WMTW News 8 asked LePage for reaction after his comments sparked an outcry in the Pine Tree State. “Good,” LePage said. “It ought to, because I’ve been taking it for two years.” Reporter Paul Merrill called the comments “offensive” and “cringe-worthy.”
In just three years in office, LePage has amassed a laundry list of controversial statements and episodes, including the time he told unemployed people to “get off the couch and get a job,” thinks the IRS is the “new Gestapo” that will “kill a lot of people,” and wants to undo Maine’s child labor laws. In particular, he has developed a penchant for quasi-sexually-tinged controversies, including telling the NAACP to “kiss my butt” after he said he’ll skip Martin Luther King, Jr. Day festivities, and protesting a non-existent “tax on bull semen.”