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A Mainer who advocates for domestic violence survivors blasted President Joe Biden on Tuesday for inviting her ex-husband, the singer Don McLean, to a White House state dinner last week that Gov. Janet Mills also attended.
Patrisha McLean started Finding Our Voices, a group that supports domestic abuse victims, after her ex-husband was charged in 2016 with assaulting her at their Camden home. A plea deal the next year resulted in no jail time. He paid $3,600 to end the well-publicized case, and Patrisha McLean has a 10-year restraining order against her ex-husband.
The singer, who is famous for his 1971 hit “American Pie,” was among the notable guests at last Thursday’s state dinner that Biden and first lady Jill Biden hosted for Kenyan President William Ruto and his wife. Ruto was the first Kenyan president to visit the White House in two decades. It was the first state visit for an African country’s leader since 2008.
“Shame on President Biden for broadcasting to Kenya and the rest of the world that in the White House, domestic abusers are welcome, and that in the U.S., domestic abuse victims don’t matter,” Patrisha McLean said in an emailed statement Tuesday.
During the case and afterward, Don McLean has insisted that he never assaulted his former wife. The most serious charge of domestic violence assault was dropped under the terms of a deferred disposition agreement that was part of the plea deal with Maine prosecutors.
He has aggressively defended himself in public, threatening a local newspaper in 2019 over coverage of a Finding Our Voices exhibit. After his adult daughter told Rolling Stone in 2021 that he subjected her to mental and emotional abuse, he told The Daily Mail that he disinherited her.
In a Tuesday statement sent by his publicist, Don McLean criticized his ex-wife as a “#MeToo hustler” but did not address his attendance at the state dinner.
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Gov. Mills, a Democrat who has said she was abused by a boyfriend as a young woman, was also among the guests. Mills has supported the work of Finding Our Voices, posing for a portrait for an ad campaign featuring survivors and signing legislation aimed at protecting domestic violence victims and restricting the early release of abusers from county jails.
Her office did not respond Tuesday to a request for comment on Don McLean’s attendance at the state dinner. White House spokespeople also did not respond to a request for comment on Patrisha McLean’s criticism of Biden.
BDN writer Charlie Eichacker contributed to this report.