During last night’s debate, Paul LePage showed that his only plan for how to win back Maine voters is to lie to their faces. Throughout the debate, he lied constantly about almost every issue that came up, and then turned around and falsely accused Governor Mills of being a liar. Here are some of LePage’s most egregious false statements last night:

LIE: “Never once did I attempt to even talk about abortion [during my time in office].”

FACT: As governor, he frequently attended anti-abortion rallies, proclaimed “we should not have abortion”, slashed hundreds of thousands of dollars from the state family planning agency, and vocally supported overturning Roe v. Wade. This year, he has repeatedly refused to rule out signing into law a bill that would restrict abortion rights, and as recently as last month, he told the far-right Christian Civic League that he believes access to abortion should be restricted. Last night, when pushed by Governor Mills on whether he would allow a bill restricting abortion rights to become law, he said, “I don’t know” and then he later reaffirmed his support for denying low-income women access to abortion.

LIE: “We did not raise the sales tax when I was governor.”

FACT: The sales tax increased from 5.0% to 5.5% in 2013, during LePage’s first term. Later in his time in office, he proposed broadening it, subjecting more goods and services to taxation.

LIE: “I did not join the Trump administration in any immigration [policies preventing Muslims from entering the U.S.]”

FACT: LePage supported the Trump travel ban, publicly breaking with then-Attorney General Mills on the issue.

LIE: “I’ve never rejected any election, including the 2020 presidential election.”

FACT: On November 13th, 2020, LePage said about the presidential election: “I tell you, this is clearly a stolen election. I think 70 million [Trump voters] all recognize that too many votes were illegitimate votes. People have voted more than once.” LePage also claimed that the 2018 election in Maine’s second congressional district was a “stolen election.”

LIE: “[Governor Mills] is now giving crack pipes through a federal program.”

FACT: Maine Public’s Steve Mistler was able to fact check this lie in real time.

Governor Mills’ administration is not handing out crack pipes.

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