Former Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D) apologized Thursday for “stupid and insensitive remarks” he made about House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).
“I recently made a number of stupid and insensitive remarks to a reporter from the National Journal,” he wrote on his Facebook page. “I am deeply sorry and sincerely apologize for my carelessness and disregard.”
{mosads}The former governor, who some see as a potential candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, received immediate blowback for a number of off-color remarks in a magazine profile published Thursday.
Commenting on Cantor’s recent primary loss, he described Southern men as being “effeminate,” saying Cantor set off his “gaydar.”
“Don’t hold this against me, but I’m going to blurt it out. How do I say this … men in the South, they are a little effeminate,” Schweitzer said. “They just have effeminate mannerisms. If you were just a regular person, you turned on the TV, and you saw Eric Cantor talking, I would say — and I’m fine with gay people, that’s all right — but my gaydar is 60-70 percent. But he’s not, I think, so I don’t know. Again, I couldn’t care less. I’m accepting.”
Schweitzer also knocked Feinstein for what he perceived as her hypocritical position on spying from the U.S intelligence community. He used an analogy about a prostitute and a nun to make the point.
“She was the woman who was standing under the streetlight with her dress pulled all the way up over her knees, and now she says, ‘I’m a nun,’ when it comes to this spying!” Schweitzer said. “I mean, maybe that’s the wrong metaphor — but she was all in!”