An adviser to LePage said the Press Herald report is 'perpetuating an insinuation.' LePage denies 'white people' remark

Maine Gov. Paul LePage told a group of Republicans last week that President Barack Obama “hates white people,” two Maine Republican lawmakers told the Portland Press Herald.

According to the Press Herald, the two lawmakers, who spoke to the newspaper on the condition of anonymity, said LePage talked about how Obama could have been the best president ever if he had highlighted his biracial heritage and that “LePage said the president hasn’t done that because he hates white people.”


Approached by local media Tuesday, LePage denied the comments.

“No I never said that and you guys are all about gossip, goodbye,” LePage said, according to WLBZ 2.

Brent Littlefield, a political adviser to LePage, told POLITICO the Press Herald report is “perpetuating an insinuation” of hearsay made by anonymous sources.

“I think that it crosses the bounds of journalism into advocacy when a publication quotes supposedly anonymous sources who are quoting hearsay. Anonymous people quoting somebody else has to be a political attack,” Littlefield said.

Littlefield said he is “not going to feed the beast of this paper owned by Donald Sussman,” referring to the owner of the Portland Press Herald, a Democratic donor and the husband of Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree, which critics see as a conflict of interest.

Two other lawmakers, state Reps. Alex Willette and Larry Dunphy, who also attended the event told the Press Herald that if LePage made the comment about Obama, they didn’t hear it.

“I didn’t hear him say anything like that,” Willette said.

This isn’t the first time LePage has allegedly made a controversial comment. Earlier this month LePage said he’d like to “to find the Press Herald building and blow it up” while participating in a fighter jet simulation. LePage later tweeted he meant the comments as a joke.

Littlefield said in a statement to the Press Herald that calling LePage racist is “far-fetched” given the governor’s history caring for a young black man. LePage and his wife cared for a Jamaican-born man while he attended high school in Maine.