A Maine state representative is being chastised for comments he made on Facebook Tuesday night suggesting that if President Trump got within 10 feet of him, he would be a “half-term president.”
State Representative Scott Hamann, a Democrat from South Portland, made the comment during a public Facebook exchange with someone he said is a longtime friend with whom he has “sarcastic” banter.
Maine Republican Party Chairwoman Demi Kouzounas called the remarks “unhinged and dangerous.”
Hamann, 36, later deleted the Facebook comment and released a statement saying his words were “inappropriate.”
“While the tone of the post was born out of frustration with the vile language currently surrounding politics, I should not have responded with the same language,” Hamann said in the statement. “This is not language I typically use; it does not reflect my personal values, and while misguided, it was intended to make a visceral point about the devolving political discourse in America.”
Hamann is not the first Maine politician to face a backlash after comments on Facebook about a president. In 2015, former state senator Mike Willette, a Republican, lost a committee chairmanship after inflammatory statements he made about then-President Obama and Muslims.
Pindell can be reached at james.pindell@globe.com. Subscribe to his Ground Game newsletter on politics: http://pages.email.bostonglobe.com/GroundGameSignUp