“He’s A Good Man”: Chris Christie Has Racist Governor Paul LePage’s Back
Last week, Gov. Paul LePage (R-ME) created a bit of a firestorm due to remarks he made to Maine residents during a meeting. Speaking to a group of concerned citizens, LePage blamed the state’s growing heroin problem on black drug dealers coming in from New York with names like D-Money and Shifty. He then said that the dealers weren’t just bringing illicit drugs into their state, but they were also impregnating young white girls before leaving. LePage made it seem that all those bastard children of black heroin slingers were eating up state social resources.
Well, as you’d imagine, LePage took a bunch of heat for the remarks and tried to explain them away in a public press conference. Meant as an apology, the Tea Party guv instead used the media gathering to state that he wasn’t being racist but that those who construed his comments as racist were the true racists. He also blamed the liberal media, specifically “bloggers,” for making the story bigger that it should have been, mainly because they want to destroy him.
Now, one subplot that developed from LePage’s little fiasco is that he has endorsed New Jersey Governor Chris Christie in his race for the White House. The Maine Governor has been campaigning on behalf of Christie in New Hampshire, which borders Maine. After LePage’s comments had become public, many were interested to see if Christie would distance himself from his friend and fellow race-baiting governor. We got the answer during Monday morning’s broadcast of Morning Joe.
Speaking to longtime buddy Joe Scarborough in a taped interview, Christie defended LePage, pointing out that they were close friends, and he believes the controversial conservative is a “good man” who just happens to be “outspoken” some of the time. He also said that LePage “genuinely” apologized for his remarks.
“We can’t judge people by one set of remarks they make. Especially when those people apologize and genuinely apologize afterwards. And so from my perspective, Paul LePage is a good friend of mine. He’s an outspoken guy. We all know that he shoots from the hip. And when he does that, there are gonna be times when he says things that even he in retrospect thinks he shouldn’t have said. That, I could tell you this.
Paul LePage had a brutally tough upbringing. [He] understands the challenges of poverty. Understands the challenges of lack of education. And he feels that in his soul. He was trying to help people through the comments he made who are being challenged by drug addiction and have another barrier being put up against him.
I’m sure if you went to Paul today and he were sitting in this chair, he would admit that he would change his words. But it doesn’t change a bit for me my affection for him. My respect for him as a leader and as a person. He’s a good man and he’s apologized. And every one of us, me and everybody else who’s in public life says things at times they wish they could take back.”
There you go. LePage was just trying to help people out by tossing out horrible stereotypes to strike fear into his voters that there is a black hoard coming into the state to fuck all their white women and make biracial babies that the state has to support. Further, when he said he should have just said “Maine women” instead of “white girls” and that there was nothing racist about his remarks, he truly and sincerely apologized. Because, as we all know, Paul LePage is a good man.
Below is video of the segment, courtesy of MSNBC:
