At a Maine Republican Party fundraiser last week for newly elected party Chairman Rick Bennett, Gov. Paul LePage told attendees that President Barack Obama "hates white people," according to two Republican lawmakers who were there, reports the Portland Press Herald.
They said LePage remarked that Obama had the potential to be the best president ever if he did more to highlight his biracial heritage, but because he hates white people, he hasn't done so.
"Yeah, he said it," said one of the lawmakers. "It was one little thing from a speech, but I think most people there thought it was totally inappropriate."
Of course, others in attendance denied hearing such language from LePage.
Two other lawmakers who attended the event — Reps. Alex Willette of Mapleton and Larry Dunphy of Embden — said that if LePage made the comment, they didn't hear it.
"I didn't hear him say anything like that," said Willette, who added that he spent most of the event trying to raise money for his candidacy for the 2nd Congressional District seat.
Dunphy said the governor made some brief, informal remarks but he doesn't remember hearing anything about the president hating white people.
LePage has a history of failing to bite his tongue when talking about Obama. In 2010 he told a group of fishermen, "As your governor, you're going to be seeing a lot of me on the front page, saying, 'Governor LePage tells Obama to go to hell.' "
Read more at the Portland Press Herald.
Jozen Cummings is the author and creator of the popular relationship blog Until I Get Married, which is currently in development for a television series with Warner Bros. He also hosts a weekly podcast with WNYC about Empire called Empire Afterparty, is a contributor at VerySmartBrothas.com and works at Twitter as an editorial curator. Follow him on Twitter.