A Democrat candidate for governor in Kentucky, Adam Edelen, is backpedaling after calling former NFL player Colin Kaepernick a “horse’s ass” for protesting during the national anthem.

Edelen posted the disparaging comment on Twitter back in 2016. In the tweet, the Democrat wrote, “Kaepernick has the right to disrespect our country. I have the right to regard him as a horse’s ass. And therein lies the genius of America.”

But now that he is running for governor as a Democrat, Edelen is suddenly sorry for his three-year-old tweet, USA Today reported.

“It was a dumb thing to say. It was two years ago, and when you’re trying to raise the level of discourse it’s not helpful to call people names, and I should have never done it,” the Democrat hopeful said Monday.

“I agree with what Kaepernick was protesting; I just don’t happen to agree with the way he did it,” Edelen explained. “But certainly, he has that right, and he has the right to do it without being called names.”

After trying to distance himself from the anti-Kaepernick comment, Edelen added that he and his running mate, Louisville developer Gill Holland, are “the most uninterested in yesterday” as well as “the most uninterested in labels.”

Despite his past comments that seem pro-American and patriotic, Edelen is now attempting to run as a left-wing progressive interested in social justice.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.