Nancy Pelosi deflects when asked to condemn a Democratic representative's crude joke about Kellyanne Conway


Democratic Rep. Cedric Richmond (La.) has been widely criticized for crudely joking that White House senior counselor Kellyanne Conway "really looked kind of familiar there in that position there" in a controversial photo that showed her kneeling on an Oval Office couch to snap a picture.
Asked about Richmond's apparent sexual innuendo in an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper on Sunday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi declined to condemn the remark, instead deflecting attention to President Trump's history of inappropriate comments about women.
Richmond "maybe should be criticized" for his remark, Pelosi said, but protested she "just [doesn't] know the particulars" of what he said. That argument would hold more water if Tapper hadn't just played a clip of the entire joke while showing the photo of Conway.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"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 asked. Once again, Pelosi didn't answer. Watch their exchange below. Bonnie Kristian
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
-
Hamas frees US hostage in deal sidelining Israel
speed read Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old soldier, was the final living US citizen held by the militant group
-
White Afrikaners land in US as Trump-declared refugees
speed read An exception was made to Trump's near-total ban on admitting refugees for the white South Africans
-
Qatar luxury jet gift clouds Trump trip to Mideast
speed read Qatar is said to be presenting Trump with a $400 million plane, which would be among the biggest foreign gifts ever received by the US government
-
Trump taps Fox News' Pirro for DC attorney post
speed read The president has named Fox News host Jeanine Pirro to be the top federal prosecutor for Washington, replacing acting US Attorney Ed Martin
-
Trump, UK's Starmer outline first post-tariff deal
speed read President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Kier Starmer struck a 'historic' agreement to eliminate some of the former's imposed tariffs
-
Fed leaves rates unchanged as Powell warns on tariffs
speed read The Federal Reserve says the risks of higher inflation and unemployment are increasing under Trump's tariffs
-
Denmark to grill US envoy on Greenland spying report
speed read The Trump administration ramped up spying on Greenland, says reporting by The Wall Street Journal
-
Supreme Court allows transgender troop ban
speed read The US Supreme Court will let the Trump administration begin executing its ban on transgender military service members