Updated Sept. 25, 12:18 p.m. ET
Staffers for Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) reportedly participated in war-whoop sounds and “tomahawk chop” gestures at supporters of Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren, mocking Warren’s claimed Native American ancestry.
The incident occurred this past Saturday in Boston, at a rally for Brown featuring former Boston Mayor Ray Flynn, and at which a group of Warren supporters also showed up with signs. The video was posted Tuesday by the state liberal blog Blue Mass Group.
According to the local ABC affiliate in Boston, it has been confirmed that among the participants were Brown’s deputy Chief of Staff Greg Casey, Constituent Service Counsel Jack Richard, plus state GOP operative Brad Garrett.
“It is certainly something that I don’t condone,” Brown himself told the station. “The real offense is that (Warren) said she was white and then checked the box saying she is Native American, and then she changed her profile in the law directory once she made her tenure.”
The Brown and Warren campaigns, as well as Brown’s Senate office in Washington, did not immediately return TPM’s requests for comment.
This past Thursday, Brown pushed the point at their first debate of the campaign.
“She checked the box claiming she was a Native American. And you know, clearly she’s not,” Brown said. “That being said, I don’t know and neither do the viewers know whether she got ahead as a result of that checking of the box. But the only way that we’ll be able to find that out is to have her release her personnel records, have Harvard release their personnel records to make sure that she did not have an advantage that others were entitled to.”
Brown followed this up with a TV ad on Monday, questioning Warren’s honesty.
Warren answered with an ad of her own. “As a kid, I never asked my mom for documentation when she talked about our Native American heritage. What kid would?” Warren said to the camera in the ad. “But I knew my father’s family didn’t like that she was part Cherokee and part Delaware — so my parents had to elope.
“Let me be clear, I never asked for, never got any benefit, because of my heritage. The people who hired me have all said they didn’t even know about it. I’m Elizabeth Warren, I approve this message. Scott Brown can continue attacking my family — but I”m gonna keep fighting for yours.”
Here’s the video from Blue Mass Group:
