The Governor of Maine's Criticism of John Lewis Will Make Your Blood Boil

The already-controversial governor of Maine, Paul LePage, is under fire for suggesting that Georgia Rep. John Lewis should "thank" white lawmakers for their work on behalf of civil rights. The comments came as he encouraged Lewis to reconsider his criticism of Donald Trump's presidency as illegitimate.

LePage had the audacity to make the ill-advised suggestion during an interview on WVOM's George Hale and Rick Tyler Show. "I will just say this. John Lewis ought to look at history," LePage remarked. "It was Abraham Lincoln that freed the slaves. It was Rutherford B. Hayes and Ulysses S. Grant that fought against Jim Crow laws. A simple 'thank you' would suffice."

Lewis, who was badly beaten as he helped lead the march from Selma with Martin Luther King Jr. in 1965, was one of the leading activists of the civil rights era. Following Trump's criticism of Lewis, more than 50 Democratic colleagues are boycotting the inauguration and exercising their First Amendment right to do so.

Ironically, LePage seems to think those Democratic leaders are actually challenging that right, adding: "For some reason, the left has become so hateful and so they are trying to bully us out of believing our constitution."