“We spawned Osama Bin Laden”: Brian Schweitzer isn’t done talking

2016 presidential wannabe Brian Schweitzer unloads to Salon on neocons, inequality and why we need single-payer

ELIAS ISQUITH

In a new profile in National Journal, former Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer — a self-styled populist Democrat who has long been rumored to be planning a run for the White House in 2016 — says that Southern men “are a little effeminate” and that outgoing House Majority Leader Eric Cantor sets off his “gaydar” to around “60-70 percent.” He also criticizes Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s relationship with the NSA, implementing a metaphor in which the influential California Democrat is likened to a prostitute. As you might imagine, these comments have not gone unnoticed.

When Salon called Schweitzer earlier this week (before the National Journal profile was published), though, the two-term governor and current MSNBC contributor had other things than effeminacy and the sex trade on his mind. In a wide-ranging interview conducted just after Schweitzer had appeared on “The Ed Show,” Schweitzer sounded off on the latest news from Iraq, why the Middle East isn’t America’s problem, why we should think twice before trusting the judgment of Hillary Clinton, how President Obama mucked-up health care reform and why he decided to speak at Mitt Romney’s annual donor gala. Our conversation is below and has been edited for clarity and length.

How’ve you enjoyed your new gig on MSNBC, and being a media guy in general?

I’m supposedly a media guy, but I’m not reporting any news. I’m saying what I think about things. I’ve done that most my life. I did it for a time as governor of Montana. I was governor for eight years. Before that I was in private business. Now I’m in private business again, but this gives me an opportunity to say to a new group of people what I think about things.

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http://www.salon.com/2014/06/19/we_spawned_osama_bin_laden_brian_schweitzer_isnt_done_talking/