Maine Gov. Paul LePage condemned the distribution of a series of recruitment fliers for the Ku Klux Klan that were found in driveways and along the road in Freeport and Augusta on Monday.
During his weekly appearance on the Bangor-based WVOM George Hale and Ric Tyler radio show LePage said he didn’t know if the fliers were legitimate or a prank but either way they were inappropriate and “appalling.”
“I find it appalling, I find it disgusting and there is no room for that in our society,” LePage said. “Just the simply thought of it is appalling, the brain that thought that up is a sick brain.”
But Maine’s firebrand Republican governor also took a swipe at liberals.
“If you see what’s going on since the inauguration, the intolerance of the left has gotten to epic proportions and now everybody is getting angry and mad and they’re saying that the conservatives are the bad people but they are the ones causing havoc around the country.”
LePage also said he was considering suing the federal government for forcing states to pay for the care of asylum-seeking immigrants because the federal government takes so long to process asylum applications.
“The federal government takes 18 to 24 months to process an application and that’s at the expense of the states,” LePage said. “We are looking into seeing if there isn’t something we can do and sue the federal government for the resources that are expended on asylum seekers because the federal government is taking so long to do their work.”
LePage said Lewiston Mayor Robert Macdonald told him Maine’s second largest city was expecting an influx of an additional 60 asylum seekers by the end of the week and that Macdonald has reached out to the state for help.
“His budget is blown all to pieces, he has no money, he is looking for the state to help him with some funds and we don’t have the funds,” LePage said. LePage then blamed the Legislature for creating “artificial wait lists” for other health and social services programs, “so they could fund asylum seekers in southern Maine, which I find really bad.”
“Mainers live their whole life here, they pay their fair share and when they get to the end of life or they are elderly and they need services we throw them to the curb,” LePage said, “and we go to young people because we need young people in the state, I find that appalling.”
LePage also took several other swipes at the Legislature criticizing partisan leadership for allowing politics and their egos to get in the way of good policy. He surprisingly, however, offered “kudos” to Senate Minority Leader Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, for offering to help anyway he could to get good policy passed. LePage said Jackson, had changed from two years ago, when he was previously the assistant majority leader in the Senate and LePage among other things said Jackson had, “a black heart.” LePage also said House Minority Leader Ken Fredette, R-Newport, was working with him and not against him.
This report will be updated
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