Politics

John Oliver asks how, exactly, did Maine Gov. Paul LePage ever get elected?

Maine Gov. Paul LePage speaks after he and Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard, right, came to an agreement on recharge spots for electric cars, Wednesday, March 9, 2016 in Quebec, Canada. Quebec Energy and Natural Resources Minister Pierre Arcand, left behind, looks on. (Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT Jacques Boissinot / The Canadian Press via AP

John Oliver has a question for Maine. How exactly did Republican Gov. Paul LePage get elected (twice)?

Oliver’s weekly late-night show, Last Week Tonight, featured the “brash, Tea Party-backed conservative” Sunday in a segment called “People Who Somehow Got Elected.”

Fair warning: The audio here is NSFW, so headphones are advisable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7TXEet-6TA

From LePage’s record 400-plus vetoes to his comments about drug dealers impregnating Maine’s “young, white girls” to his recommendations for how gun owners should get rid of the state’s drug dealers, Last Week Tonight was just getting started lampooning the Maine governor.

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“For people who live in Maine, statements like these from their governor are not surprising,” said a narrator in the voice-over piece. “You see, while most humans possess a thin barrier that stops thoughts from immediately exiting their brain as words, Paul LePage does not.”

The segment goes on to summarize LePage controversial remarks to the NAACP and about foreign immigrants and refugees, and it was only halfway finished. It didn’t even get to LePage’s recent dog adoption controversy.

After a clip of the governor defending his unpolished, direct style, the segment concludes by conceding that “LePage does have a point.”

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“He’s not one of those politicians who think one thing and then say another,” the narrator said. “He’ll always tell you exactly what’s on his mind, no matter how horrifying it is.”

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