WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — U.S. Ambassador Scott Brown told a New Zealand website Wednesday that he accepted advice that he should be more culturally aware after a U.S. inquiry into his conduct at a Peace Corps event in Samoa.
The Stuff website said Brown acknowledged that complaints were made about his comments to a female food server and to arriving guests at the July event in the Pacific country. Stuff reported Brown told the server she could make hundreds of dollars as a waitress in the U.S. and told some guests they looked beautiful.
Brown, a former U.S. senator from Massachusetts, has been ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa since June. He was one of the first ambassadors tapped by President Donald Trump.
Brown attended the event with his wife and said he’d been complimenting the well-dressed guests as they walked in. He said the complaints had come as a surprise but he accepted the advice from the inquiry.
“I was told that, ‘You know, listen, you’re not Scott Brown from Ryan, New Hampshire, anymore, you’re an ambassador and you have to be culturally aware of different cultures, and different sensitivities.’ And I’m always welcoming that kind of advice,” Brown told Stuff.
He said there had been some cultural misunderstandings, but also that many people at the event didn’t like Trump and he suspected there might be some political motivation behind the complaints.
“Sadly, it’s politics, and it is what is,” he told Stuff.
He said rumors about the incident had prompted him to speak out. The U.S. Embassy in New Zealand said Brown would not comment beyond the interview he gave to the news website.
So, you accept the criticisms AND they are politically motivated. Here’s a new critique – stop speaking out of both sides of your dumbass mouth.
What he forgot to also tell the server, was that, the money/tips made, wouldn’t even be able to help with medical insurance, find a decent place to live, because rent is so damn expensive, be able to buy healthy foods.
He’s pretending as though the United States of America is greener than the other side.
Scott Brown is an Ambassador…sorry I’m just trying to let that sink in…
“I was told that, ‘You know, listen, you’re not Scott Brown from Ryan, New Hampshire, anymore, you’re an ambassador and you have to be culturally aware of different cultures, and different sensitivities.’ And I’m always welcoming that kind of advice,” Brown told Stuff.
You would think that someone appointed as a US Ambassador would just kind of know that he should learn about and be aware of the culture and sensitivities of at least the countries to which he’s ambassador, without having to get advice to do so 4 months into it. But, then again, this is Scott Brown.
Excuse me, Mr Jones. You’re dealing from a deck that is obsolete. Callista Gingrich is the Ambassador to the Vatican. Trump asked his first wife, Ivana, to be Ambassador to the Czech Republic. Kid Rock should be next on tap.
Good grief.