Paul LePage said he is ‘looking at all options’ after he threatened state lawmaker who took issue with his characterization of people of color as ‘the enemy’

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Governor Paul LePage of Maine said on Tuesday he might not finish his second term in office less than a week after he called people of color “the enemy” and threatened a state lawmaker.

LePage told the Bangor radio station WVOM that he was “looking at all options”, the Portland Press Herald reported.

“I think some things I’ve been asked to do are beyond my ability,” the Republican said on the radio show. “I’m not going to say that I’m not going to finish it. I’m not saying that I am going to finish it.”

After the radio interview, LePage indicated on Twitter that anticipation for his resignation was premature. He wrote: “The reports of my political demise are greatly exaggerated,” nodding to the legendary Mark Twain quotation.

The governor’s term ends in 2019. He has been in office since 2011. LePage ranks in the bottom 10 of America’s least popular governors with an approval rating of 38%, as of a May study.

On Wednesday, LePage claimed that “the majority” of drug dealers arrested in Maine are black or Latino. He said: “Look, the bad guy is the bad guy. I don’t care what color he is. When you go to war, if you know the enemy and the enemy dresses in red and you dress in blue, then you shoot at red.”

When LePage’s remarks prompted a critical response from Drew Gattine, a Democratic state representative, the governor told reporters he left Gattine a threatening voicemail full of expletives. He said he wished he could challenge the lawmaker to a duel in which “I would point [my gun] right between his eyes”.

The governor apologized on Tuesday for threatening Gattine.

“When I was called a racist I just lost it, and there’s no excuse,” he said. “It’s unacceptable. It’s totally my fault.”

LePage said being called racist “absolutely knocked me off my feet”, comparing it to “calling a black man the N-word or a woman the C-word”.

Gattine has said he didn’t call the governor a racist but instead told a reporter that “the kind of racially charged comments the governor made are not at all helpful”, according to the Portland Press Herald.

The governor has a long history of making controversial statements, which he himself has acknowledged as “outrageous comments”. LePage’s style and unwillingness to back down when speaking about race have drawn comparisons to his party’s presidential nominee Donald Trump. LePage himself has said that he and Trump are “of the same cloth”.

The string of startling remarks LePage has made include an assertion that drug dealers “with the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty” came to Maine and “half the time they impregnate a young white girl before they leave”. He later said he meant to say “Maine women” instead of “white women”.