PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Critics are putting pressure on Maine Gov. Paul LePage to apologize for referring to the Internal Revenue Service as “the new Gestapo.”

Maine’s governor, who made the remark in his weekend radio address, previously told the NAACP to “kiss my butt,” called protesters “idiots,” referred to state government middle managers as “corrupt” and even said he’d tell the commander in chief to “go to hell.”

Democrat Ethan Strimling, a political commentator, said Monday that the Gestapo remark represents the first time the governor has used such racially-charged language.

The Anti-Defamation League’s regional director called the governor’s remark “hurtful and inappropriate.” Derrek Shulman says comparisons to the Nazi police force have no place in politics or anywhere else.

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