Even in its politics. Pour ejemplo, this was the governor of the great state of maine, paul lepage, speaking last night at an event discussing Substance Abuse at bridgeton, maine. Number one, ive got a bill in to the legislature right now to take the traffickers. Now, the traffickers, these arent people that take drugs. These are guys that are named dmoney, smoothie, shifty, these type of guys that come from connecticut and new york. They come up here, they sell their heroin, then they go back home. Incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young white girl before they leave. Which is a real sad thing because now we have another issue that weve got to deal with down the road. Republican governor of the great state of maine, paul lepage speaking last night in comments that were just clipped and circulated widely in maine tonight. The governor saying part of the problem with these dmoney, smoothie, shifty guys from new york and connecticut who come up to maine to sell drugs is that half the time they impregnate a young white girl before they leave. Which the governor thinks is a real sad thing because you know what that leads to down the road. After that led to some nationwide headlines tonight about the governors racially charged remarks, not to mention this headline from the local bangor daily news, lepage do we have that other one . Lepages alleged racist remarks are bonkers. Theyre not alleged. Weve got them. The governor did put out a statement tonight saying everyone just completely misunderstood what happened here. The governor is not making comments about race. Race is irrelevant. Yes, how dare you terrible journalists bring up the issue of race . Governor paul lepage was not talking about race. He never mentioned race. Just as a refresher, what exactly did the governor say again . Incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young white girl before they leave. The governor of the great state of maine. On days like this paul lepage serves as a walking, breathing reminder that there is nothing inherently genteel, lowkey, or even necessarily rational about politics in the Great American northeast. At this point paul lepage for the last we started covering paul lepage when he first got elected. His time in office has not changed anything about what was so interesting about him from the first place. But at this point he does stand as a singular reminder that new england can be just as nutty as everywhere else. The only thing that ive heard is if you take a plastic ball, you put it in the microwave, and you heat it up it gives off a chemical similar to estrogen. And so worst case some woman might have little beards. But we dont want to do that. What would you like to do . I want to find the were about to put on screen what the governor said in response, and some of our viewers who may find it distasteful may want to hit the mute button and turn away for the next 20 seconds or so. The governor told the reporters senator jackson claims to be for the people but hes the first one to give it to the people without providing vaseline. When he was asked if he realized some people might find that comment offensive, hes reported to have said, good. It ought to. Because ive been taking it for two years. Maines republican governor paul lepage, who incidentally is facing potential impeachment proceedings as we speak in his home state. Paul lepage, you also might remember him for once honoring Martin Luther king day in his state by telling the maine chapter of the naacp that they should in his words kiss his butt. And whats your response to them saying its more than just one instance but rather a pattern . Tell them to kiss my butt. See . New england politics can be totally offensive. New england politicians added whoopie cushions and scribbled racist caricatures to all those Norman Rockwell paintings a very long time ago. For some reason new england still has a reputation for having real nice politics. But you know, guys like paul lepage in maine are i think still the outer edge of it but new england politics can be very edgy, can be very interesting, can be very weird. And every state is a little different. In maine theyve got paul lepage. In New Hampshire they recently had to deal with an influx of libertarian secessionists who are trying to move into New Hampshire in sufficient numbers so that they could secede from the rest of the country and the rest of the state and create a New Hampshire libertarian uto a utopia. It hasnt happened yet but one of the unexpected ways the New HampshireFree State Movement has had ab impact in that state is in one New Hampshire town the libertarians decided that they would stick it to the man, they would starve the beast of government by feeding everybodys parking meters all day long. So that nobody ever got a parking ticket in that town ever again. And the town would thereby be starved of parking ticket revenue. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha next door in vermont weve been covering the very, very seedy story in that state of a longtime republican state senator whos about to go on trial on multiple lurid Sexual Assault charges. The state senator was arrested at the State Capitol last year and the Vermont State Legislature has had this dilemma ever since about what they want to do with their indicted state senator who kept coming to work after he was out on bail. Finally this week, just yesterday the Vermont State Senate voted to suspend him as a senator. Hes the first vermont legislator ever stripped of his powers in that state. But the litany of sex Assault Charges against this guy from multiple women, some of whom were girls and not women during the alleged events of which he is accused, those have been rattling around behind the Vermont State Legislature like cans tied to its bumper for almost a year now. And everybody thinks of i think new england in general, vermont in particular as hippiedippy, liberal, lowkey, very blue states. But you look closely, and politics there are not only more rough and tumble than you might think, theyre more scandalous than you might think and they are more bipartisan than you might think. That state senator who just got tloep out of his seat while facing these lurid charges in vermont, hes a republican and has had a longtime seat in the Vermont State Senate. The vermont governors race was unexpectedly close. In 2014 you might remember the democratic incumbent did not cleanly win that election and had to go to the state legislature before vermont got its governor in 2014. The lieutenant government in the state of vermont is a republican. Vermont republicans have also been getting some interesting National Attention this year because vermonts holding its primary very early on. March 1st, theyre on supper tuesday this year. Vermont has had president ial visits from john kasich and from rand paul and both of those visits the Republican Party in vermont went out of its way to be very welcoming too when theyve got these National Candidates coming to vermont of all places. I should mention, though, that the vermont Republican Party was not as welcoming when they learned this month of Donald Trumps plans to make an appearance tonight in vermonts largest city. When the burlington, vermont donald trump event was first announced, the vermont Republican Party did not put out the kind of excited welcoming statement that they did about john kasich or rand paul. Instead they put out this statement which said, we learned late today through media reports that donald trump will be making a brief Campaign Stop in vermont. The vermont Republican Party did not invite mr. Trump and has no role in this event. As we reported last night, the Trump Campaign also managed to infuriate local officials in burlington, specifically the Police Department, when they distributed roughly 20,000 tickets for this event they were holding tonight in burlington despite the fact that the venue for the event seats only 1,400 people. The local police chief in burlington told the Burlington Free press that had a rock band actually, i should be specific. Had phish, an excellent jam band, done something similar in the city, the police would not have hesitated to cancel the event on Public Safety grounds. If they had overbooked a 1,400seat venue to the tune of 20,000 tickets, they would have shut that down for Public Safety reasons had it been anything other than a political event. Because this was a political event, though, they did not want to shut down donald trump in burlington tonight. That said, the police made no bones about the fact that they were fairly furious about how this all went down. The police chief said today that yesterday they started raising concerns with the Trump Campaign when they realized how much the campaign had oversold the event. They started trying to engage with the campaign about what this would mean in terms of Public Safety, the kind of problems this would create for the town and the city. The Trump Campaign apparently simply stopped returning calls from the police chief once he started asking them those questions. So with the Police Department furious and incommunicado with the Trump Campaign and with 20,000 tickets distributed for a venue that can only hold 1,400 people, nobody knew what was going to happen today in the town that had Bernie Sanders as its mayor for a long time. Nobody knew how it would turn out. Nobody knew how many of the people who turned out actually would be donald Trump Supporters. And particularly for the National Media i think nobody quite knew what donald Trump Supporters from vermont might actually be like. So where are you from . Are you from vermont . Yep. Vermont. Vermont. Are you a republican . Democrat . Im a republican. Got it. Yep. And is this yes, it is. Whats he said that attracted you to him . Hes not a career politician. He cant be bought. He says what everybody else wants to say and theyre afraid to say. And thats what we need. This Political Correctness is for the birds. You know, its destroying this country. And hell make it better again. I just want to see what he has to offer and see if he seems sincere about it. So are you here as a supporter . Someone whos open minded . Or im independent. Im real openminded. Okay. Are you from vermont . Yes. So whats your reaction when you hear hes getting potentially 20,000 people who rsvped to come today . You never know how many people are not going to show or i mean, that is a little bit crazy. And thats why im here so early. But you dont know in this day and age if theyve been bombed with, you know, people just trying to make it look like theres 20,000 people. So i just have no real statement on that. Its kind of crazy, but so youre out here as a supporter, then . Absolutely. And there are obviously reports about how this venue only fits 1,400 people, the campaign has 20,000 people theoretically that rsvped. Whats your response . At first i thought how can that be . We went online, we got our tickets early. I think its a good thing. I think this shows trump is stirring up emotions within the people of the United States. And i think its good. There are some people here who are for trump, i have no doubt, and there are people here who are not for trump. But i think trump is scaring people. Maybe those that arent for him. As to, you know, people are supporting him. And there is maybe going to be a change. And i hope that there is. And so whats your reaction when you see that theres possibly 20,000 people in a place like burlington, which is Bernie Sanders back yard front yard. His Campaign Headquarters is right there in the square. Whats your reaction when you hear this big outpouring for a republican in an otherwise pretty liberal well, i came across the lake. We call it across the pond. Im from the state of new york. And i understand that maybe this is bernies stollping grounds. But at the same time this is the United States of america. This is a country. A country that the freedom that we always had in the past has been taken away. And you feel that its our duty, obligation to support someone that we feel will bring our country back to freedom again. I think thats the main reason. You think that mans donald tr trump . Not necessarily. I really havent quite decided. I do like i do like chris christie. Probably a onceinalifetime chance to see him. I was within driving distance. I drove 200 miles, roughly. From kingston, new york. So what does it mean to you that he would come to a place thats within driving distance here . It means a lot. Thats why im here standing in line waiting for four hours, to see him and support him. Its pretty cold out here. This is the northeast. No cold. So if the election were tomorrow youd vote for him . Absolutely. And is there anything he could say that would make you change your mind . No, my mind is made up. Are you republican . Democrat . In vermont you dont have to be registered. We like to say were registered independents. I would like to say im a social liberal and kind of a i guess when it comes to financial things im a little bit more conservative. Is there anything trump could say that would attract you to him . If he said lets go play golf and ill fly you down and if he could do my hair up like his, im all for it. Lets do it. Golf with brady and trump and maybe samuel l. Jackson. Well see. I think theyre on the outs right now. But yeah, id like to have to go play golf with the guy sometime. That would get my vote. And are you from vermont . I am indeed. Born and raised. Were here to supervise all these people here to make sure that they behave. Is there any whats the political reason youre out here today . Or is there one . Well, i heard the Gop Committee in bangor county has and were here to support trump and support the gop ticket in general. Both national and vermont. We brought our chairs. Were having a great time. Thats what its about. People like that i have to watch out. Hey, i told you i was going to go get us cold drinks later. Okay. I take that back. So if the election were tomorrow, would you vote for trump . I dont think so. We dont have to pinpoint anybody down really. Im interested in the guy but i havent really pinpointed who i would vote for at this moment. So there anyone else . You said youre interested in mr. Trump of course. Is there anyone else in the Republican Party thats on your radar . Yeah. I did like i dont think hes going to make it. But i did kind of like him. Brilliant footage. Brilliant. I love that lady and that kid sitting next to each other making plans to have cold beverages later. Did you notice the pot leaf dotting the i on his bernie shirt . Some of the people who turned out for the donald trump event in burlington, vermont today. And its interesting to see that a lot of people who turned up, whether or not they were republicans, and a lot of them were, a lot of people turned up not necessarily already committed to supporting the Trump Campaign. I mean, thats part of why you turn out to a campaign event, right . To see if you like the candidate, see the candidate in person. See how the candidate strikes you. But the Trump Campaign made a remarkable decision tonight that they would turn away anybody who would not profess to them or prove to them that they were already committed supporters of mr. Trump. They turned away people who could not pledge that they were Trump Supporters. It was a private event. Nobody who didnt already support trump would be allowed in. Pretty weird freaking day. People think that vermont and new england are weird in their own new england hippy dippy blue state ways. Theyre really not. They are more complicated than that. Theyre just as gloriously weird as the relative of the country. But even with that, today in burlington it was kind of weird. So if the election were tomorrow would you vote for trum s p. I certainly would. And is there anything he could say today that would make you rethink that . Well, isis is a huge problem. And these people we have in there now, they dont have a clue. Theyre letting them get more powerful, more powerful. And theyre here in the United States. And were going to be fighting them here. Then they want to take our guns away from us and we cant defend ourselves. Ive got news for them. They aint getting mine. Calm mu hi this is conor. Sorry i missed you. Im either away from my desk or on another call. Please leave a message and ill get back to you just as soon as im available. Thank you for patience at this busy time. Join Princess Cruises for stargazing with discovery at sea. Book now for savings up to 1,000 per stateroom plus up to 600 free onboard spending money. Call your travel consultant or 1800princess. Princess cruises. 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