A Republican governor candidate in Maine who once labeled himself “Donald Trump before Donald Trump” threatened to “cover” a Democratic staffer at a campaign event over the weekend, new video shows.
Paul LePage, who earned the title of America’s “craziest governor” while running the state of Maine from 2011 to 2019, will be returning to his old seat in November.
The brash former governor has made headlines in the past for outrageous and racist statements, such as infamous jokes about bombing one of his state’s biggest newspapers and claiming that “guys named D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty ‘ come to Maine to sell drugs and ‘get a young white girl pregnant.’
Despite telling reporters in 2019 that he was done with politics and would retire and go to Florida, LePage has reportedly returned to present a more “softer” image to appeal to the majority moderate voters in his home state.
But that effort was seemingly undermined by a video obtained by the Daily Beast which claims to show LePage threatening someone who caught the ex-governor as he walked over a puddle of mud during the open-air event.
LePage, who seemed shocked at how close the person filming got, says in the recording: “Two meters away or I’ll cover for you.”
With one hand the ex-governor is pointing at someone behind the camera, and with the other he is holding a donut.
“When you get into my space, you go down,” he adds.
Paul LePage Runs for His Longtime Seat as Governor of Maine After Running the State from 2011 to 2019
He is known for making bombastic comments, such as making jokes about assaulting a newsroom and telling the NAACP to “kiss my butt.”
Three men in LePage’s campaign clothes chuckle as they surround the politician.
LePage says at the end of the recording, “Enough is enough. Six meters away.’
It is not clear what happened before or after the video.
The person who made the recording is reportedly an employee of the Democratic Party of Maryland.
LePage’s top campaign adviser Brent Littlefield declined DailyMail.com’s request for more context, but said: “Paul LePage is not like most people, he was homeless as a child and forced to live on the streets, overcoming huge opportunities to a college degree, become a successful businessman, mayor and governor of Maine.”
The Maine GOP told DailyMail.com: ‘In a world where we just saw someone try to stab Lee Zeldin and Salman Rushdie, forced to fight for his life after being stabbed multiple times, it’s no surprise that Paul LePage isn’t satisfied. was with this paid Democratic Party. Staff member who gets so close in such a sneaky way.’
“Few elected officials from Maine have endured as many threats of personal injury because of their political positions as Paul LePage. There are also few elected officials from Maine who grew up in a violent home like the LePage administration did. That means he’s under a different level of personal threat than most,” said Jason Savage, executive director of the Maine Republican Party.
Here’s a simple solution: trackers must respect candidates’ personal space. Filming is one thing, but this meeting was more than that.’
He is also the second governor to back Donald Trump’s 2016 primaries
The Democratic Party of Maine confirmed to DailyMail.com that it was their staff who were involved in the incident.
“Paul LePage was, is and will always be a bully. When he was governor, he often threatened people with violence and with the power of his office — I saw it firsthand,” said Drew Gattine, chairman of the Democratic Party of Maine.
“This latest impending eruption just shows that he is the same as he has always been. The people of Maine deserve better than Paul LePage and his hatred and division.”
LePage takes on the incumbent governor of Maine, Janet Mills, a Democrat.
He rose to governorship more than a decade ago after a surge in Tea Party support fueled by the Republican backlash against Barack Obama.
Then LePage closely aligned himself with Donald Trump by becoming only the second governor to support him in the 2016 Republican primary for president.
LePage takes on incumbent Maine governor Janet Mills, a Democrat
“I was Donald Trump before Donald Trump became popular. So I think I have to support him because we’re the same species,” he said on the Howie Carr Show in February of that year.
He also said Trump’s then opponents, Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Florida Senator Marco Rubio, were killing “the brand” of the Republican Party.
NBC reported in June that LePage is now in a “different era” of his politics.
“What he’s trying to do is not necessarily change his policy, but take some of the rough edges out of it,” political scientist Mark Brewer told the outlet.
Like Trump, LePage recently cast doubt on his state’s election during a campaign stoppage in Mount Vernon on Aug. 8.
“I will say that in Maine, I have a lot of confidence in small towns — I’d say towns with less than 1,000 people — because the clerks usually know everyone in town, so I’m very confident,” he said, according to the report. Courier Gazette.
Referring to the state’s big and bluer cities, he added, “I’m less confident going to Bangor, Rockland, Lewiston, Portland, South Portland. Those are areas where you need to be a little more careful. There were 163,000 people who voted in the last presidential election who had no ID.”
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