Scott Brown warned for 'beautiful' remarks during Samoa visit

The State Department investigated complaints into Ambassador Scott Brown during the first month of his New Zealand and Samoa appointment because of a cultural faux pas.

The former Massachusetts senator on Wednesday acknowledged the mounting “rumor and innuendo” that he offended some attendees at a Peace Corps reunion in Samoa by calling them beautiful and even handsome.

“We walked in, everyone was dressed to the nines. They all looked great. Gail looked great. I was dressed up,” Brown told New Zealand’s Stuff website.

“Apparently somebody took offense to that. Fine. I did say that. Gail and I both said that,” Brown said, at times nervously laughing alongside wife Gail Huff.

In his defense, Brown said some of the guests were dressed “all dirty and kind of grungy” before the elegant affair attended by at least 200 people, including the island country’s head of state, Tuimalealiifano Sualauvi II.

To make matters worse during the July 28 visit, Brown then told a server she could “make hundreds of dollars” as a waitress in the U.S.

“Somebody took offense to that as well,” the ambassador conceded.

The inquiry amounted to a mere warning from the State Department, with Brown’s staff telling him to be mindful of what he says in the future.

“I was in fact told by my people, ‘Listen, you know, you’re not Scott Brown from New Hampshire anymore. You’re an ambassador. You have to be aware, culturally aware of different cultures, different sensitivities,’ Brown said.

“I’m always welcoming that kind of good advice,” he told the paper.

During what appeared to be an apparent apology for his conduct, Brown blamed some of the complaints on the volatile political mood in the U.S., and its impact on people he met at the Peace Corps event.

“Listen, politics is a bloodsport back home and at t this event, there were a lot of people that didn’t like the President. Sadly, it’s politics and it is is what it is.”

“Will I say it again? Probably not,” Brown said of his remarks.

Trump appointed Brown to serve as the U.S. ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa in April and he was confirmed by the Senate in June.

With News Wire Services