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Maine Governor: Workers From India Hardest to Understand

Gov. Paul LePage said foreign workers are being used in restaurants after he criticized a referendum proposal to raise Maine's minimum wage to $12.
Image: Maine Governor LePage
Maine Governor Paul LePage listens while speaking with an attendee to the 23rd Annual Energy Trade & Technology Conference in Boston, Massachusetts, November 13, 2015. The two day conference hosts some of North America's leading policy leaders, public utility executives and energy technology authorities. REUTERS/Gretchen Ertl GRETCHEN ERTL / Reuters, file

BANGOR, Maine — Maine's Republican governor says it's hard to understand workers "from Bulgaria" and workers from India are "the worst ones."

Gov. Paul LePage said Saturday that foreign workers are being used in restaurants after he criticized a referendum proposal to raise Maine's minimum wage to $12. He says he's disappointed his alternative proposal to hike the wage to $10 didn't get traction.

He described Indians as "lovely people but you've got to have an interpreter."

Related: Maine Gov. Mad at Democrats, Cancels Senator's Swearing-In

LePage is known for making controversial remarks. In this case, he was chuckling as he spoke at the state party convention. He joked that his wife is going to get a job as a waitress for supplemental income.

He also had a crude remark about President Barack Obama, saying Obama stands for "one big-ass mistake, America."