INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

Stephen King: ‘Paul LePage Is A Bigot, A Homophobe, And A Racist’

By Steph Bazzle
Published on: 05:39 PST, Aug 28, 2016

A Saturday afternoon tweet from novelist Stephen King on Paul LePage, Governor of Maine, calls the man a bigot, homophobe, and racist. King was apparently addressing an ongoing controversy regarding the politician, which most recently involved LePage leaving an angry, profanity-ridden voicemail message for Maine House of Representatives Democrat Drew Gattine, for allegedly applying one of the same labels.

Governor LePage has been called out for racially charged statements lately — he issued a call for tightening immigration, saying the vetting process is inadequate and places Americans at risk. According to BBC, he declared that drug-related crime in Maine is due to “people of colour or people of Hispanic origin.”

LePage asserted that 90 percent of the criminals arrested for drug-related crimes are black or Hispanic, and that criminals fitting these demographics are coming from Connecticut and New Jersey to bring crime to his state.

“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.”

After later hearing that Maine Democrat Drew Gattine had allegedly called him a racist, LePage phoned Gattine, leaving a profane voicemail message, which he asked Gattine to make public.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G56aIx5fg7o

LePage demands that Gattine prove he is a racist. Gattine, for his part, told CNN that he had not called the Governor any such thing.

“Calling somebody a racist is one of the worst things you can ever call somebody. And it’s not something that I’ve ever called anybody.”

Stephen King, however, has no problem calling out his state’s Governor, or going on the record assigning the label of “racist” to the man. He did so publicly Saturday afternoon, not only describing LePage as a racist, but as a bigot and homophobe as well.

[Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images]
It’s not the first time King, who accepted the National Medal of Arts last year from President Obama, and often addresses political matters online, has utilized his social media accounts to criticize LePage. In January, he addressed some of the original comments LePage made about who the Maine Governor says drives drug crime in his state.

King has also called LePage one of the two worst governors in the country an embarrassment to Maine.

The two have had open disagreements before, when LePage leveled allegations at Stephen King in 2015 about income taxes, and King said LePage should “man up” and apologize.

[Photo by Evan Agostini/Getty Images]
The Portland Press Herald reported at the time that LePage denied saying King didn’t pay Maine taxes, asserting he had only said King was out of the state at the time. However, his original statement is quoted as follows.

“Well, today former Governor Ken Curtis lives in Florida where there is zero income tax. Stephen King and Roxanne Quimby have moved away, as well.”

Though LePage says that he has been collecting data since January on drug-related arrests in order to demonstrate evidence of his assertion that

…90-plus percent… are black and Hispanic people.

He also denies that police in the state use racial profiling. Huffington Post notes that 95 percent of Maine’s population is white, making the disparity in arrests, as described by LePage, more striking.

After LePage’s phone call to Gattine was made public, King was far from the only person to express contempt for the content of the voicemail message, support for Gattine, and opposition to the policies the Governor was defending. Gattine used social media for a broad thanks to all who have reached out to him with messages of support.

As for the celebrated horror author, his assertion that the Goernor of Maine is a bigot, racist, and homophobe netted some negative response, but also a total of nearly five thousand likes and retweets. Mostly, though, social media users are telling Stephen King that if Paul LePage leaves him a voicemail, they can’t wait to hear it.

[Photo by Sarah Rice/Getty Images]

Share this article: Stephen King: ‘Paul LePage Is A Bigot, A Homophobe, And A Racist’
stephen king immigration
More from Inquisitr