An MSNBC analyst suggested Thursday that American interest in the late Queen Elizabeth II was driven by a desire for “hereditary privilege.”

“I think there is a weakness in the American character that still yearns for that era of hereditary privilege,” said Richard Stengel, a former State Department official, after host Nicolle Wallace asked why American media was covering the death of the British monarch.

“I’m going to be the skunk at the garden party today, to use a British expression, and I also would pay tribute to Queen Elizabeth for her unrivaled service and dedication, but it was her great-great-great-great-grandfather George III who we rebelled from to start the United States of America,” Stengel said. (RELATED: ‘She’s Much Livelier In Private’: Royal Author Shares What Queen Elizabeth II Is Like Away From The Public)

WATCH:

Queen Elizabeth II died Thursday at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. She ruled as queen for 70 years, taking the throne in 1952 at the age of 26 after her father, King George VI, passed away.

Doctors placed the 96-year-old monarch under medical supervision earlier Thursday.

“You played a clip of her speaking in Cape Town in 1947 in South Africa. That’s the year that apartheid took effect in South Africa. That was something British colonialism ushered in. British colonialism which she presided over all these years had a terrible effect on much of the world and it’s something that people revolt from,” Stengel continued.

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