House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi appeared to excuse a crude joke her fellow Democratic Rep. Cedric Richmond made about White House counselor Kellyanne Conway. At the Washington Press Club Foundation Dinner last week, Richmond said Conway “looked kind of familiar in that position there,” referring to a photo of her kneeling on a couch in the Oval Office. CNN anchor Jake Tapper pressed Pelosi on the “sexist” and “disgusting” joke during an appearance on State of the Union, asking if Richmond should apologize to Conway. “You all are criticizing Cedric for something he said in the course of the evening, and he maybe should be criticized for that. I just don’t know the particulars,” Pelosi said, adding that she was not at the dinner. “But I do, every day, marvel at the fact that somebody who said the gross and crude things that President Trump said wouldn’t even be allowed in a frat house, and he’s in the White House.” Tapper then asked Pelosi if her refusal to condemn the comment “undermine[s] [Democrats’] moral authority” when they go after Republicans for similar remarks. Without addressing the substance of the comment, Pelosi said “everybody was making crude comments” at the dinner. Richmond has not apologized for the joke, which he says was not meant as a sexual reference.
