Dem. Governor Apologizes For Eric Cantor ‘Gaydar’ Comment

Democrat Brian Schweitzer, the former governor of Montana, has apologized for claiming that Eric Cantor sets off his “gaydar.”

Cantor, the outgoing GOP majority leader in the U.S. House of Representatives, lost in his Virginia Republican primary last Tuesday to Tea Party populist David Brat, a college professor.

Responding to Cantor’s historic loss that stunned the Beltway political establishment of both parties, Schweitzer offered this off-the-wall if not offensive analysis to the National Journal:

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… 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.”

In the same published interview, he compared fellow Democrat Diane Feinstein, the U.S. Senator from California, to a prostitute.

Schweitzer, who is also an MSNBC contributor, subsequently posted an apology on his Facebook page:

I recently made a number of stupid and insensitive remarks to a reporter from the National Journal. I am deeply sorry and sincerely apologize for my carelessness and disregard.

The ex-governor has been making some noises about running for president next year. About Hillary Clinton, the presumed frontrunner for the nomination, Schweitzer explained to the National Journal reporter that “Elections are about the future. Can the election be about the future, if it’s a Clinton that’s running? Or is it about the past?”

According to BuzzFeed, the gaydar gaffe about Cantor, a long-time Congressman and a married father of three, “has raised doubts about Schweitzer’s viability as a possible Democratic challenger to Hillary Clinton in 2016, but it also raises questions about whether that kind of rhetoric is acceptable to a progressive media outlet like MSNBC. The remarks are the latest in a string of controversial comments from talent and staff that have resulted in bad press, apologies, and sometimes, firings for MSNBC.”

As alluded to above, Brian Schweitzer’s apology about gaydar is nothing new for those affiliated with the supposedly diversity-celebrating liberal cable network.

For example, as The Inquisitr previously reported, MSNBC host Toure apologized on Twitter for ridiculously suggesting that Jewish survivors of the Holocaust benefited from so-called white privilege. MSNBC also apologized multiple times for an offensive segment about the Cinco de Mayo holiday. MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry apologized three times for mocking 2012 GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s African-American grandchild. Despite a very groveling apology, MSNBC host Martin Bashir lost his on-air job altogether after a disgusting smear of Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican VP nominee. Alec Baldwin was also let go by MSNBC after allegedly spewing homophobic slurs on a New York City street corner.