In an uncommon display of evenhandedness in their coverage, several corporate media outlets have reported on the disinformation tactics used by Maine Democrats to smear a Republican state lawmaker as a Nazi sympathizer by taking her comments from a debate on a bill to restrict paramilitary training in the state out of context.
[RELATED: Controversial Bill Targeting “Unauthorized Paramilitary Training” Passes Through Maine’s House…]
Speaking in opposition to the bill — LD 2130 — before a vote in the House last Wednesday, Rep. Laurel Libby (R-Auburn) posed a rhetorical question asking what neo-Nazi demonstrators in Maine had done that was illegal to make a point about freedom of speech and association, which are protected by the U.S. and Maine Constitution.
“Let’s talk about the Nazis,” Rep. Libby said, in clear reference to several demonstrations held in Augusta and Portland last year.
“I would like to know, although I’m not posing a question through the chair, I would like to know what they did that was illegal. I would like to know what they did, in detail if folks would like to share, that was wrong, that infringed on another person’s right. Holding a rally, and even holding a rally with guns, is not illegal,” she said.
It is abundantly clear from the context of Rep. Libby’s full remarks that she is not referring to the Nazis of 1930s and 40s Germany, but that did not stop the Maine House Democratic Campaign Committee from dishonestly clipping the Auburn Republican’s statement devoid of any context to rile up their base and drive donations to her opponent, Democrat Dan Campbell.
“We won’t stand for this MAGA extremism in Maine. Check out who we have running against her,” the House Democratic Campaign Committee captioned their post, which quickly went viral and sparked outrage among thousands of social media users last week.
Conveniently omitted from the Democrat operatives’ post, however, is the sentence that came directly before Rep. Libby’s clipped statement — that she is referring to “several articles that came out last summer” regarding neo-Nazi demonstrations throughout the state.
On April 1, 2023, a group of about 15 to 20 neo-Nazis with the “Nationalist Social Club” marched through Portland, before police eventually broke up a physical altercation between the group and a counter-protester, and the group dispersed without any charges being filed. None of the mask-wearing demonstrators were ever identified.
At the time, then-Interim Chief of Portland Police Heath Gorham released a statement saying that officers were not able to see who or what started the fight, while Cumberland County District Attorney Jacqueline Sartoris claimed that charges could have been filed.
Portland Police later adopted new guidance based on recommendations from Sartoris to better respond to rallies that cross the line from constitutionally protected protesting to violence.
[RELATED: Portland City Officials Reveal New Guidance to Police in Response to Neo-Nazi Rally…]
In August 2023, the same neo-Nazi group staged a rally in front of the State House in Augusta, and dispersed after under an hour.
“Now, we don’t have to like what said Nazis did,” Libby continued her remarks after the end of the deceptively chopped clip. “We don’t have to like what they stand for. We don’t have to agree with their positions. We don’t have to think well of them.”
“But you know what we do have to do? We have to protect their First Amendment right to free speech and association, that is our job,” Libby said.
“It is our duty to protect the Nazi’s right to free speech and association, as long as it does not infringe on someone else’s right, as long as they are not harming someone else,” she said.
Responding to the House Democrats’ disinformation tactics, Libby confirmed to WGME on Friday that she was indeed referring to last year’s neo-Nazi rallies in Maine, not the Nazis of World War II.
Stephanie Grindley, reporting for WGME, provided the full context of Libby’s full remarks, putting on display the Democrats’ dishonesty.
On Sunday, the Associated Press published an article which also provided the full context of Rep. Libby’s remarks, and quoted her describing the views of the neo-Nazis as “reprehensible,” and calling the Democrats’ move “deceitful” and “a fundraising stunt.”
“It was taken completely out of context. I find it to be pretty disgusting, frankly, and manipulative,” she told AP. “Everyone who’s watching that clip thinks I’m a 1930s and ‘40s Nazi sympathizer.”
That Associated Press article was reposted by several Maine outlets, including the Portland Press Herald and WMTW.
Even the Boston Globe picked up on the story and gave the Auburn Republican a chance to clear the air over her remarks.
“I don’t support them, but I do support their right to do that activity as long as it does not infringe on someone else’s rights, and as long as someone else is not being harmed,” Libby told the Globe Saturday. “It’s not my job to like their message, but it is my job to protect their right to free speech and association.”
“Watching the full speech makes it pretty clear that I am not talking about the Nazis in Germany in the 1940s and 1930s,” she added. “This clip was put out there by the House Democratic Campaign Committee as a fund-raising stunt. It was deliberately put out there out of context in order to get a reaction.”
The bill targeting “unauthorized paramilitary training” passed the House Wednesday by a single-vote margin, 72-71, without the support of a single House Republican.
Sponsored by Rep. Laurie Osher, D-Orono, the bill came in response to an attempt by the Biden supporting neo-Nazi Christopher Polhaus and former Democrat activist Fred Ramey to build a neo-Nazi compound for their “Blood Tribe” in Springfield, Maine.
In 2019, Ramey founded the “Truckers for Yang” super PAC in support of then-Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang, raising more than $100,000.
Polhaus sold the Springfield property in October of last year, posting on the Telegram messaging platform that “militant leftist doxing the location” of the property had made it “too dangerous” for his plans to be tenable.
[RELATED: The Maine Wire Investigates Notorious Northern Maine Neo-Nazi Camp…]
Maine Wire Editor-In-Chief Steve Robinson paid a visit to the site of the notorious neo-Nazi compound in January, and found nothing but an abandoned camper and a garage tent furnished with a massage bed.
According to Maine campaign finance records, the top supporters of the House Democratic Campaign Committee, the group behind the deceptive video, include billionaire hedge fund manager S. Donald Sussman and novelist Stephen King.
In the 2023 cycle, the committee received $50,000 from failed U.S. Senate candidate Sara Gideon, $25,000 from former House Speaker Justin Alfond, $8,000 from Charter Communications, and $6,000 from Versant Power.
[RELATED: Top FTX Executive Nishad Singh Gave Maine Democrats $100,000…]
In 2022, one of the PACs top donors was Nishad Singh, the number three employee of the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
That’s all that democrats have to run on,…………… Lies,…..
We all know how corrupt the democrats are in Augusta. It was great to see that the mainstream media finally told the truth about the lies from Augusta. Thanks to Representative Laurel Libby for standing up for our Freedom of Speech! Thanks Maine Wire for continuing exposing the evil in Augusta.
Nazis, KKK, Jim Crow, etc are all/were arms of the Democrat party.
That is the way the Demos twist it and we all know it.
I’ll admit, I moved here from away, like many viewing/involved. That shouldn’t make any difference, this battle is not a Maine-only thing; I fought it in MA and IL for the previous 50 yrs. In fact, my family got here by way of the Russian Gulag; my father was 11yrs old when he and his family were sent there, so I grew up in an extended family of survivors of the end result of political abuse; I can tell you that Hell really does exist, and that things can get much worse. However, here I am, same ongoing oppression and abuse.
Based upon my own past experience and observation, the tide will not turn until what the enemy is choosing to do starts to not work for them, and they then choose to work with our side. Or the system collapses due to catastrophic economic or crime dysfunction, and the chaos is so complete that what they continue to do does not save even them.
Obviously I do not have the answer. I will continue to show up; I’m slowly putting more and more of my time/life/resources into the organizations that we do have on, or aligned with, our side: my local Republican committee, ME Republican Assembly, 4-5 Life and anti-sex-trafficking groups, an active rod and gun club (WRAG), the NRA, and more. I don’t see any other way forward, or any better thing to do than continue to show up and give my whole self, and hope to live long enough to see Light, and Truth.
I am stunned that the media actually stood up to the ugly misinformation that the Democrats put out there in an attempt to dishonor and discredit the good name of Rep Laurel Libby. This group will act without morals or ethics in order to stay in power. Hopefully more sleeping Mainers will become aware as to what is being thrust onto them.
Hee haw, jumpn jacka*s, the Maine Marxist democrat legislators’ are really showing their true obnoxious colors this time. Yup, it’s a Big Deer in the Headlights-Blinkn Neon Sign Billboard
moment or as Queen Camilla stated when she shook hands with Bad Biden as he broke wind, “It was long and loud and unmistakeable”…a real stinkah!
Anyway, the more this Marxist Party of Hate, Death and Destruction pulls their evil trickery stunts, like they’re trying on President Trump, the more voters see what’s really going on and it’s tremendously ugly…Evil Served on a Sleek Greasy Tray! No thank you; the voters WILL vote them all out next time ’round! Keep doing what you’re doing, saying what you’re saying, Rep Libby; truth is so refreshing! Thank you for standing up, we’re with you! Make Maine Sane Again!
Hitler was right and White Nationalists are right. The only way White Nationalists can be defeated is if freedom of speech is taken away.
I hope she runs for Leadership next time.