During a live-streamed conversation about the growing heroin market in his state, Maine Governor Paul LePage made some problematic comments.

“These aren’t people who take drugs, these are guys that are named D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty. These type of guys, who 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 then we have another issue that we gotta deal with down the road.”

Clinton on LePage’s “offensive” remarks: His “racist rants sadly distract from efforts to address 1 of our nation’s most pressing problems”

— Carrie Dann (@CarrieNBCNews) January 8, 2016

Gov. LePage’s team is on the defensive, arguing that that controversial governor was not invoking race.

“The governor is not making comments about race. Race is irrelevant. What is relevant is the cost to state taxpayers for welfare and the emotional costs for these kids who are born as a result of involvement with drug traffickers. His heart goes out to these kids because he had a difficult childhood too. We need to stop the drug traffickers from coming into our state,” LePage’s spokesperson responded.

On Friday, the Governor apologized calling the remarks a slip of the tongue. “I was going impromptu, and my brain didn’t catch up to my mouth. Instead of ‘Maine women,’ I said ‘white women,'” LePage added.

Lepage

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