Well, at least he didn’t mention Vaseline this time.
Gov. Paul LePage, who has long derided the state’s journalists, targeted the Portland Press Herald Friday morning when he climbed into the cockpit of a fighter jet simulator in North Berwick.
As he strapped into the F-35 Lightning II demonstrator machine, set up for attendees of Pratt & Whitney’s annual employee appreciation day, Maine’s Republican governor joked to a nearby Lockheed Martin Corp. guide: “I want to find the Press Herald building and blow it up.”
If you watch the clip, you’ll see that the far-right governor laughed after the comment, clearly suggesting LePage was kidding (and thought this was hilarious).
But can we agree that governors shouldn’t joke about killing American journalists he doesn’t like?
“Unfortunately our governor has a misguided sense of humor,” Press Herald Publisher Lisa DeSisto responded. “That kind of a joke is irresponsible in this day and age, especially when it comes from the leader of our state.” It might be easier to overlook a comment like this if LePage was someone with a reputation for class, who’d earned the public’s respect, but this comes on the heels of his “give it to the people without providing Vaseline” remarks in June, which followed the time he equated the IRS with Nazis, the “kiss my butt” comments, and his windmill conspiracy theory. Most polls show LePage among the nation’s least-popular governors. Go figure.
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