August 26, 2016

Maine Governor Paul LePage Threatens State Lawmaker With Profanity-Filled Voicemail

“You little son of a bitch, socialist cocksucker.”

Brian Snyder/Reuters/ZUMA

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Update, 11:52 a.m. EST: In a statement, LePage said his suggestion to duel Gattine was not meant to incite any physical violence. The governor, who called himself a “history buff,” said he was aware that such a challenge is in fact illegal today.

Just one day after claiming 90 percent of the drug traffickers arrested in Maine are either black or Latino, the state’s combative Gov. Paul LePage left a threatening voicemail in which he called a state representative a “son of a bitch, socialist cocksucker.”

According to LePage, Rep. Drew Gattine, a Democrat, was one of several local lawmakers who called him a racist this week, an accusation Gattine has since denied.

“Mr. Gattine, this is Gov. Paul Richard LePage,” LePage is heard saying in a recording first reported by the Portland Press Herald. “I would like to talk to you about your comments about my being a racist. You cocksucker, I want to talk to you. I want you to prove that I’m a racist. I’ve spent my life helping black people and, you little son of a bitch socialist cocksucker, I want you to record this and make it public because I am after you. Thank you.”

Soon after leaving the profanity-laced message, LePage leaked the story of the voicemail to two reporters, telling them he wished it was 1826 so he could challenge Gattine to a formal duel.

“I would point it right between his eyes, because he is a snot-nosed little runt and he has not done a damn thing since he’s been in the Legislature to help move the state forward,” LePage told the Press Herald.

On Friday, the state’s Democratic leadership condemned LePage, calling the Donald Trump supporter “mentally or emotionally” unfit to hold office. LePage’s remarks this week are the latest episode in the two-term governor’s long history of courting controversy with racially insensitive comments.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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