Senator boasts of meeting royalty

Secret meetings’ claims challenged

FILE - In this May 2, 2012 file photo, Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass. speaks at Bunker Hill Community College in the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston. Brown has spent weeks fanning questions about Democratic rival Elizabeth Warren's claim of Native American heritage on the campaign trail, while Warren regularly paints Brown as a darling of Wall Street. The rhetoric is sometimes caustic, and all but invisible in the ad war being waged on Massachusetts television sets. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)

BOSTON — Sen. Scott Brown said Thursday that he’s held secret meetings with “kings and queens” and other top leaders during his time in the U.S. Senate. An aide later said Brown misspoke when referring to meetings with kings and queens.

The Massachusetts Republican made the comment during an interview Thursday on WTKK-FM, after being asked if it was time to move beyond questions about Democratic rival Elizabeth Warren’s claims of Native American heritage to discuss other issues. Brown renewed his criticism of Warren, but also defended his work as a senator.

“Each and every day that I’ve been a United States senator, I’ve been either discussing issues, meeting on issues, in secret meetings and with kings and queens and prime ministers and business leaders and military leaders, talking, voting, working on issues every single day,” Brown said.

When asked for further explanation about the secret meetings, a campaign spokesman said Brown was “referring generally to private meetings with foreign and domestic leaders.”

“He misspoke when he said kings and queens,” Brown campaign aide Colin Reed said.

The head of the state Democratic Party called on Brown to release a list of his secret meetings.

“If Scott Brown rests the substance of his campaign on meeting with royalty, he should tell the people of Massachusetts who he met with and what they talked about,” Massachusetts Democratic Party Chairman John Walsh said.