Gov. Paul LePage has come under fire for his recent comments. | AP Photo Clinton campaign condemns Maine governor's 'racist rants'

Paul LePage, the volatile Republican governor of Maine, set off a cascade of condemnation on Thursday when he claimed that drug dealers were flooding the state with heroin, impregnating “white girls” and then leaving.

At a town hall event on Wednesday, LePage was asked about measures he is taking to minimize Maine's drug problem. He then laid out new legislation targeted at traffickers, whom he described in racially charged terms.


"These aren't the people who take drugs," LePage said. “These are guys with the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty — these types of guys. They come from Connecticut and New York, they come up here, they sell their heroin, they go back home,” he added, according to the Portland Press Herald.

“Incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young, white girl before they leave, which is a real sad thing because then we have another issue we've go to deal with down the road," he added.

Peter Steele, a spokesperson for he governor's office, said in a statement that LePage's comments were not racial in nature.

"The governor is not making comments about race," Steele said. "Race is irrelevant. What is relevant is the cost to state taxpayers for welfare and the emotional costs for these kids who are born as a result of involvement with drug traffickers. His heart goes out to these kids because he had a difficult childhood too. We need to stop the drug traffickers from coming into our state."

A representative of Hillary Clinton’s campaign condemned the comments as “racist rants.”

"Governor LePage's comments tonight are not only offensive and hurtful but they try to cover up the very real epidemic of drug abuse facing people in his state and across the country," said Marlon Marshall, who oversees states and political engagement for Clinton.

LePage, who was re-elected in 2014 after a hard-fought, three-way race with Democrat Mike Michaud and Independent Eliot Cutler, in July endorsed Chris Christie in the GOP presidential primary — the New Jersey governor's first major endorsement.

He has been under fire during his second term, however, after inexplicably botching the veto of dozens of bills put forth by the Democratic-controlled Legislature and then vowing not to enforce the new laws.

Christie's campaign has not commented on LePage's remarks.