Republican Maine Governor Paul LePage said he’s considering a “whole lot of different options” for ways to move forward in response to the blowback he’s received for leaving an obscene voicemail for a state legislator last week.

In a Tuesday morning appearance on WVOM, a talk radio station based in Bangor, Maine, LePage apologized to the people of Maine, said he “will take action,” and did not rule out his resignation as a possible next step.

“It’s not about me, it’s about Maine people,” he told hosts George Hale and Ric Tyler. “And if I’ve lost my ability to convince the Maine people, that’s what we need, and that’s the kind of people we need in Augusta, then, you know, maybe it is time to move on.”


Later on Twitter, in a Mark Twain reference, the governor said the “rumors” of his resignation were “exaggerated.”

Regarding rumors of resignation, to paraphrase Mark Twain: "The reports of my political demise are greatly exaggerated." #mepolitics — Paul R. LePage (@Governor_LePage) August 30, 2016

LePage has faced growing pressure from Democrats and members of his own party after the governor left an aggressive, obscenity-laced message for Democratic Representative Drew Gattine. In a later press conference he called, LePage said he wished he could challenge Gattine to a duel.

“When I was called a racist, I just lost it,” LePage said during his Tuesday radio interview. “And there’s no excuse. It’s unacceptable. It’s totally my fault. My family is getting the brunt of it right now.”

LePage told hosts Hale and Tyler he was so angry, he “literally couldn’t breathe.”

“I am a lot of different things, and I have faults like everybody else, but a racist is like a word that I — I uh, I just can’t explain it,” he said. “It’s like calling a black man the N-word or a woman the C-word. It just absolutely knocked me off my feet. And I make no apologies for it. It was really totally, totally unnecessary, and I need to do something about it. And we’re considering a whole lot of different options right now.”


LePage said he apologizes to Gattine’s family and asked the legislator to meet with him.

Gattine has denied calling the governor a “racist,” according to the Portland Press Herald.

LePage, who has previously faced accusations of racism, left the voicemail a day after saying he has a binder documenting the drug dealers arrested in the state and that more than 90 percent of them are black or Hispanic.

During his radio interview, LePage said all the information in his book came from media reports.

“Whether it’s right or wrong, and I’ll leave you to make that judgement, but I spoke fact,” he said. “Now, they’re saying well, you can’t do this, you know every day they say you can’t do it because of a racially charged atmosphere in our country. But the same token is all lives matter. That’s the bottom line. All lives matter. And the majority of people who are dying are Mainers.”

The governor said he plans to take the future one step at a time, with meetings with his team and Gattine, declining to say whether he would, or wouldn’t, finish his term.

“I’ve never met a person who’s been perfect and not made a mistake,” LePage said. “And hopefully the people of Maine will say, ‘OK, we’ll forgive you this time and clean you’ll clean up your act and let’s move forward.’”

Listen to the full interview here.