House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Sunday refused to condemn Democratic Rep. Cedric Richmond’s sexist attack on White House counselor Kellyanne Conway.
Richmond, referring to a picture of Conway kneeling on the Oval Office couch while taking pictures for the presidents of historically black colleges, said the White House staffer “looked familiar” in that position–a sexually charged joke that even Chelsea Clinton called “despicable.” Pelosi, however, refused to condemn the attack when pressed by Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
TOPSHOT – Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway (L) checks her phone after taking a photo as US President Donald Trump and leaders of historically black universities and colleges pose for a group photo in the Oval Office of the White House before a meeting with US Vice President Mike Pence February 27, 2017 in Washington, DC. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
“Leader Pelosi, the joke was sexist, it was disgusting. Shouldn’t the congressman apologize to Kellyanne Conway? And, honestly, where is the Democratic Party in expressing outrage about this?” Tapper asked.
“I wasn’t at the dinner. I’m just finding out about this. The fact is, I’m still in sort of a state of ‘What is going on here?’ that the person who occupies the White House is a person who was on that Hollywood video, that said the crude things he says about women,” Pelosi dodged. “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. But I do, every day, marvel at the fact that somebody who said the gross and crude things that President Trump said — he wouldn’t even be allowed in a frat house, and he’s in the White House.”
“Well, I think we’ve been covered the Access Hollywood tape quite a bit, but I guess the question is: if one criticizes only Republicans when they make crude comments, does that not undermine the moral authority if they don’t criticize when Democrats make crude comments?” Tapper shot back.
“Well, I think everybody was making crude comments, and I just don’t know, I wasn’t at that dinner. But I was at the dinner last night at the Gridiron Club, and we were all, I think, quite, shall we say, respectable. I’ll look at what my colleague said there, but I do think that in the Oval Office we were always, always with decorum appropriate for the White House,” Pelosi dodged again.
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