Maine Gov. LePage suggests he makes things up to mislead media
Nearly a year ago, Maine Gov. Paul LePage vowed he'd never speak to another reporter ever again.
The Republican failed to live up to his own promise. Not only does he speak to the press, but there's a possibility he purposely misleads them using information he made up.
“I just love to sit in my office and make up ways so they’ll write these stupid stories because they are just so stupid, it's awful, " LePage told a Portland radio station on Thursday.
The Associated Press reports LePage was responding to a news story about LePage planning to leave the state during a three-day state government shutdown earlier this week. The story, sourced to conversations LePage had with two state senators, drew venom from the governor.
LePage called the reports "fake news," referring to the state media as "vile," "inaccurate" and "useless." He further suggested the world would be a better place without print media reporters.
"The sooner the print press goes away, the better society will be," he said.
The words of LePage, a self-made businessman elected in 2010, often make headlines outside of Maine.
His claim he'd become media celibate came after he left an expletive-filled rant on state Rep. Drew Gattine's voicemail — "I’ve spent my life helping black people and you little son-of-a-b----, socialist (expletive)." He also challenged Gattine to an 19th-century-style duel.
The call came after it was suggested Gattine had called the governor a racist, something Gattine denies. LePage later apologized and said the reporter who asked him about Gattine should as well.
LePage backed President Trump in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election, saying he'd like the then-candidate to "show some authoritarian power.”
As Trump feuded with Democratic Rep. John Lewis of Georgia ahead of his inauguration, LePage said the civil rights icon should thank Republicans for ending slavery.
"John Lewis ought to look at history," he said. "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."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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