Maine Gov. Paul LePage wants to make amends, doesn't rule out resigning

AUGUSTA, Maine -- Republican Gov. Paul LePage said Tuesday that he plans to meet with a Democratic lawmaker to try to make amends for leaving an obscene voicemail message and that he isn’t ruling out resigning.

Speaking on WVOM-FM radio, LePage apologized for the tirade directed at Rep. Drew Gattine and said it was “unacceptable and totally my fault.”

He said he’s going to meet with family and close advisers to decide what to do next. He said he hopes Maine residents will forgive him and say, “You clean up your act and let’s move forward.’”

LePage also declined to say whether he will serve out the remainder of his term. “Some things I’ve been asked to do are beyond my ability,” LePage said without elaborating. “I’m not going to say I’m not going to finish it. I’m not going to say I am going to finish it.”

However, he posted a tweet Tuesday afternoon that suggested he would not be leaving office:

Over the past two years in particular, he’s sparred with lawmakers over issues like welfare reform and allegations that he is abusing his power.

LePage said he still has the energy to tackle issues like wait lists for state services and solar policy, but if he’s “lost my ability to convince the Maine people that’s what we need and that’s the type of people we need in Augusta, you know, maybe it is the time to move on.”

LePage had been angry with Gattine because he thought Gattine called him a racist. Gattine denies it.

Last week LePage apologized to “the people of Maine” - but not to Gattine - after he left a voicemail message that said, “I am after you” and then telling reporters he wished he could challenge Gattine to a duel and point a gun “right between his eyes.” He also called Gattine a vulgar name related to oral sex.

The voicemail followed a controversy that bubbled up Wednesday when LePage, who’s white, said at a town hall in North Berwick that photos he’s collected in a binder of drug dealers arrested in the state showed that 90 percent of them “are black and Hispanic people from Waterbury, Connecticut; the Bronx; and Brooklyn.”

Democratic lawmakers warned that LePage was coming unhinged and called for a political intervention with LePage. Some are calling for his resignation.

LePage has made other controversial comments in the past. The second-term governor has, among other things, compared his opponents’ political tactics to “[giving] it to the people without providing Vaseline” and suggested the state’s NAACP chapter could “kiss my butt.”

Here’s a look at other controversial remarks made by the two-term governor:

___

September 2010

As a candidate for governor, LePage told a group of fishermen during a discussion of federal regulations that he wouldn’t be afraid to tell President Barack Obama to “go to hell.” He later said he regretted the words but didn’t back down on criticism of the administration.

___

February 2011

LePage dismissed the dangers of bisphenol-A, a chemical additive used in some plastic bottles, by saying the worst that could happen was “some women may have little beards.” LePage later said he was joking.

___

December 2011

LePage used a barnyard epithet when he was asked about a meeting he had with three unemployed workers and a lawmaker. When a reporter asked him for his thoughts about the meeting, LePage used the expletive, then repeated it slowly.

___

April 2012

At a town hall meeting, LePage was asked about state fees. LePage’s response: “The problem is, Middle management of the state is about as corrupt as can be.”

___

July 2012

In a radio address, LePage assailed a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that upheld the health care overhaul law, saying Americans had no choice but to buy health insurance or “pay the new Gestapo - the IRS.” He later said he didn’t mean to offend the Jewish community or minimize the Holocaust.

___

June 2015

LePage joked about shooting a political cartoonist to the cartoonists’ son at a youth leadership program. A newspaper official said it wasn’t funny, especially after the killing of cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo in Paris.

___

January 2016

LePage said during a town hall meeting that drug dealers with the names “D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty” come to Maine from New York City and Connecticut, sell their drugs and then “half the time they impregnate a young white girl before they leave.” LePage later apologized, saying he meant to say “Maine women” instead of white women.

Later that month, LePage said he wanted to use the guillotine to execute drug dealers publicly. The governor’s office said the remark during a radio interview was just a joke to illustrate his support for tougher penalties for drug crimes. In the interview, LePage laughed when he talked about using the guillotine to chop off the heads of drug traffickers.

___

February 2016

LePage was accused of racial insensitivity over a joke about a Chinese investor’s name. The man’s first name is Chiu - pronounced “choo.” When LePage mentioned him at a business breakfast, he pronounced the man’s name with an emphatic fake sneeze. The governor’s office later said the two have an “excellent relationship.”

___

April 2016

At the Republican Party convention, LePage said that it’s hard to understand workers from Bulgaria and that workers from India are “the worst ones.” He made his remarks while criticizing a proposal to increase Maine’s minimum wage. He described Indians as “lovely people, but you’ve got to have an interpreter.”