Rep. Jared Golden, left, will face Republican challenger Austin Theriault in November in one of the most closely watched Congressional races in the country. File photos by Andree Kehn/Sun Journal and Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

LEWISTON – After refuting claims the nation’s future is endangered if the wrong man is elected president as “dangerous lies,” three-term U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, a Lewiston Democrat with a penchant for thumbing his nose at party leaders, is taking heat from both sides of the political aisle.

Left-wing political podcaster Keith Olbermann said on the social media site X that Golden “has folded in the face of the Trumpist threat” and called on Maine’s 2nd District member of Congress to resign.

At the same time, the Maine Republican Party said Golden “is trying to confuse voters shortly before the election” by taking stands that represent “a stark change from his past position” when he supported Democratic worries about former President Donald Trump.

In the wake of Saturday’s failed assassination attempt on Trump, Golden issued a statement urging people to cease amping up the threat posed by those with different political ideas.

“We can start by dropping hyperbolic threats about the stakes of this election,” Golden wrote on social media.

“It should not be misleadingly portrayed as a struggle between democracy or authoritarianism, or a battle against fascists or socialists bent on destroying America,” he said. “These are dangerous lies.”

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Golden has gone further than any other Democrat on Capitol Hill in minimizing the possible danger to democracy that a second Trump term in the White House might represent. In an opinion piece he wrote, he said he believes the Republican will win and added he is “OK with that.”

Golden is locked in a tight reelection race to hang on to his seat in a district Trump won in both 2016 and 2020. His GOP challenger, Austin Theriault of Fort Kent, has Trump’s backing.

Theriault, too, has called for people to show greater unity.

Shortly after Trump escaped serious injury in a shooting at a rally in Pennsylvania, Theriault called it “a dark day in U.S history and I am hopeful it will serve as a wake-up call.”

“Our country needs to unite and come together,” Theriault said on X.

Golden wrote that “our political culture projects a dark and almost hopeless future of diminishing freedom, increasing violence, and growing instability led by unserious people who care more about their own personal well-being than the nation’s.”

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“In the pursuit of short-term political gain, they are eager to exaggerate our differences and cast their political opponents as diabolical caricatures bent on destroying the country,” the Lewiston lawmaker wrote.

“Continuing down this path would be disastrous,” Golden said. “This is the moment for elected officials and candidates for political office to lead us down a better road toward the hopeful future that Americans want and deserve.”

The National Republican Congressional Committee, which is targeting the Democratic seat, said that “Golden is clearly trying to have it both ways on another issue a few months before the election.”

It pointed out that in the past, Golden has issued the sorts of warnings that he recently denounced.

For example, it cited Golden’s statement at the 2022 Maine Democratic convention about “ongoing attacks on our democracy, elections and the peaceful transfer of power” in the wake of the Trump-led insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, that attempted to stop Democrat Joe Biden from taking office after his victory at the polls two months earlier.

Golden voted twice to impeach Trump for “high crimes and misdemeanors,” including the assault on the U.S. Capitol.

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“I have no doubt that the president bears responsibility for last week’s assault,” he said at the time, “and I don’t believe there has ever been a clearer case for impeachment, removal from office and disqualification from holding future public office.”

“This was not a complex debate,” Golden said, adding that the assault “upon the nation and our democracy played out in broad daylight, in front of the entire nation. It was ugly and violent, and those responsible for the violence are guilty of a dark and bitter betrayal of the country.”

Trump has never expressed regret at his role in the attack and continues to call efforts to portray it as a violent insurrection “a hoax.”

Golden hasn’t explained how a man he said is responsible for “a dark and bitter betrayal of the country” no longer poses a serious threat to its future.

In his statement over the weekend, Golden said there is “an overwhelming sense of fear and anxiety about the future of our country, where the normal and tested tools of democracy no longer seem adequate to protect the common good.”

“In this light, a rise of politically motivated violence in America is sadly unsurprising,” he added.

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Golden said as well that “we remain a strong, democratic and wealthy nation capable of overcoming these hard times if we are united in pursuit of our common interests.”

But, he concluded, “Divided, we are likely to fail.”

Theriault’s take isn’t much different.

“We can all see the path we need to take next,” he said on social media Monday. “I agree that we need to lower the temperature of American politics right now.”

Theriault said that “a crucial component of lowering the temperature” is for government to listen to the people more carefully.

In a stance he shares with Golden, Theriault said that “if you’re trying to figure out what to do next, in these unprecedented times, please make sure you go vote this November. That’s the best way to make our country a better place.”

“We have to do this together,” Theriault said.

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