Last Updated on December 29, 2019
A resurfaced viral video from 2017 from a “Values and Vision” community meeting showed Maine Democrat, Richard Fochtmann, gloating at the rising white male suicide rate to a laughing audience.
The short video leaked to a Maine website showed former state senatorial candidate Richard Fochtmann making an inappropriate joke as a private citizen.
https://twitter.com/ROHLL5/status/1210679166170890240
“What we need in Maine is we need younger people — take a look. It looks almost like a lecture for Social Security,”
“Okay, so that’s one thing. We need to encourage as many young people. We also need more women,” he continued.
“Today I saw a thing that said a lot of men, white men are committing suicide.”
“I almost thought yeah, great,” said Fochtmann, “Then I thought about it little more and I thought maybe I shouldn’t say that out in public.”
The video even grabbed President Donald Trump’s attention in a tweet.
What kind of an animal is this? https://t.co/oQSExXIxDV
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 28, 2019
Fochtmann told The Daily Caller: “A joke’s a joke, isn’t it?”
“I thought the point of the joke is that it won’t be long, and that this won’t be a majority white nation, and I think that’s a good thing.”
Fochtmann also critiqued a “lack of morality” within his age group, according to The Washington Times.
“There’s no big protest going on about [the Trump] administration. It’s anathema to me. I hear a lot of people out there espousing things about being good Christians, being patriots and what not. We just read different history books. Different Bible, everything.”
In a statement to The Daily Caller, Maine Democrats said the following after the event:
“For the past month, the Maine Democratic Party held public forums all over the state of Maine inviting anyone interested to come and share their thoughts on the direction of the state party. Richard Fochtmann spoke as a private citizen at a public forum and unfortunately, he used his 2 minutes at the mic to make his point with an offensive joke. Another attendee promptly stood up and called the comment out as inappropriate. During that same forum Fochtmann stood up and apologized to the group. This video has been selectively edited without the call-out or ensuing apology, and Fochtmann has been mischaracterized as a ‘featured speaker’ or ‘Democratic leader’ in order to fabricate a controversy. In truth, Fochtmann spoke only for himself.”
The suicide rate for young men is currently rising in the United States, and has been largely ignored by legislators.
