“John Lewis ought to look at history,” Paul LePage says. | AP Photo Paul LePage chides Lewis to look at history: 'A simple thank you would suffice'

The controversial Republican governor of Maine, Paul LePage, responded to Rep. John Lewis’ criticism of Donald Trump by telling the civil rights icon to “look at history” and offer a “thank you” to past Republican presidents for fighting against slavery and Jim Crow.

The president-elect has been attacking Lewis, a Georgia Democrat, because the congressman last week said that he does not view Trump as legitimately elected. In an interview that aired Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Lewis cited the Russian government’s suspected attempts to influence the election through cyberattacks on Democratic Party officials as his reasoning.


“John Lewis ought to look at history,” LePage told WVOM, a Maine radio station. “It was Abraham Lincoln that freed the slaves. It was Rutherford B. Hayes and Ulysses S. Grant that fought against Jim Crow laws. A simple thank you would suffice.”

Lewis, beloved by liberals and respected by members of both parties, fought against segregation as a leader of the Civil Rights Movement. He was one of the organizers of the 1963 March on Washington and suffered a fractured skull in the confrontation with state troopers at the Selma, Alabama, marches in 1965.

LePage, who supported Trump ahead of the election, has drawn comparison to the president-elect for regularly making inflammatory comments on topics including race and slamming the press.