LePage: Yeah, I Was Talking About Black Drug Dealers The Whole Time!

FILE - In this Jan. 8, 2016, file photo, Gov. Paul LePage speaks at a news conference at the State House in Augusta, Maine. Critics of LePage on Thursday, Jan. 14, took up a longshot bid to impeach him over allegatio... FILE - In this Jan. 8, 2016, file photo, Gov. Paul LePage speaks at a news conference at the State House in Augusta, Maine. Critics of LePage on Thursday, Jan. 14, took up a longshot bid to impeach him over allegations of abuse of power. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File) MORE LESS
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Despite his previous denials, Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) assured listeners Tuesday in his weekly radio appearance that he really was talking about black drug dealers when he said people with names like “D-Money” were impregnating white girls and bringing drugs into his state.

LePage said his comments were justified in order to draw attention to the problem.

“I had to go scream at the top of my lungs about black dealers coming in and doing the things that they’re doing to our state,” LePage told WVOM. “I had to scream about guillotines and those types of things before they were embarrassed into giving us a handful of DEA agents. So this is what it takes with this 127th (state legislature).”

“It takes outrageous comments and outrageous actions to get them off the dime,” he added.

In early January, LePage said drug dealers named “D-Money, Smoothie” and “Shifty” travel to Maine and “they sell their heroin, they go back home.”

Then, he added: “Incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young, white girl before they leave, which is a real sad thing because then we have another issue we have to deal with down the road.”

The backlash to the racially charged remarks was immediate. LePage initially had blamed the media for making his comments sound racially charged. “If you want to make it racist, go right ahead and do what you want,” he said at a press conference last month.

h/t Huffington Post

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