BRUNSWICK

In an interview with Matt Gagnon and Ken Altshuler of WGAN News on Thursday, Gov. Paul LePage announced his support of a special counsel to investigate possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.

“I don’t trust the media, so my feeling is let’s have a prosecutor. I agree with that. Let’s get to the facts, get the facts on the table, and let’s see what happens,” said Le- Page.

LePage pointed to calls for his own impeachment, which failed in the Maine House of Representatives last year, saying that there needs to be evidence of a high crime or misdemeanor in order to impeach.

“Just here in Maine, they’ve attempted to impeach me twice — to be impeached, you have to have committed something. You have to have done something — high crimes and misdemeanors,” said the governor. “I did neither, and they still tried to impeach me.”

Unprompted, the governor then brought up a decades-old conspiracy surrounding the death of former Deputy White House Counsel Vince Foster, who committed suicide early in President Bill Clinton’s first term. Despite multiple investigations ruling Foster’s death a suicide, LePage said he questioned the official story, implying that he was murdered.

“Listen, the left will do anything. There’s not a thing they won’t do,” said LePage. “I’m very suspect of a lot of things that have happened in our country, including Vince Foster.”

The governor covered several topics in the morning radio appearance, including attempts to replace the Affordable Care Act by Republicans in Congress. The legislation passed the House, but has received a mixed reaction in the Senate.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty in the proposal that’s out there,” admitted LePage. “And I will firmly support not having preexisting conditions as part of the formation of a premium.

I think high risk pools take care of them.”

LePage pointed to Maine’s PL90 as an example for national health care reform. In the brief period between the passage of that legislation and the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, he claimed, premiums were dropping in Maine due to PL90.

“It worked very very well in Maine,” he said. “I think that’s the way to go.”

LePage also took time to explain his opposition to the addition of a 5 cent deposit on nips, 50 ml liquor bottles.

“Just like the Legislature always does, it overreacts, and if there’s a business in Maine, they’ll find a way to kill it,” he said.

The governor has threatened to stop selling the nips at agency liquor stores if the 5 cent deposit is put in place.

“They’re not addressing the problem. The problem isn’t the waste stream, the problem is people drinking behind the wheel with the little nips, they throw them out of the car because they don’t want to keep the evidence in the car,” said LePage. “Now there’s no possible way any deposit is going to get people to save the evidence.”

LePage also stated that he is in weekly contact with the Department of the Interior concerning the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, and repeated his claim that he was not invited to conversations concerning the project. The governor has made several trips to Washington, D.C. in recent months attempting to get the Obama administration’s designation of the national monument reversed.

nstrout@timesrecord.com

DISCLAIMER: Matthew Gagnon, co-host of WGAN morning show, is a former employer of the reporter.