Kellyanne Conway believes the news media would be more outraged about a Democratic congressman’s crude joke that the White House staffer looks “familiar” with being on her knees if she were a pro-abortion woman, she told The Daily Caller, adding that she believed the joke was sexist.
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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
Asked over text if she thought there would be more media outrage about the comment if she were a liberal woman, Conway told The Daily Caller, “Yes.” She added: “And it is not just if I were a liberal woman, but if I were a pro-abortion one.”
“I really just want to know what was going on there, because, you know, I won’t tell anybody. And you can just explain to me that circumstance, because she really looked kind of familiar in that position there. But, don’t answer, and I don’t want you to refer back to the 1990s,” Democratic Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond said at a Washington Press Club Foundation Dinner on Wednesday.
“Since some people have interpreted my joke to mean something that it didn’t I think it is important to clarify what I meant. Last night was a night of levity. Where I grew up saying that someone is looking or acting ‘familiar’ simply means that they are behaving too comfortably,” Richmond told TheDC in a statement.
Conway said Richmond has not apologized to her for the crude comment. “I notice he did not apologize, he tried to clarify,” Conway said of Richmond’s claim that the joke wasn’t meant to be sexual.
GOP Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel also fired back at Richmond, calling the remark “disgusting and offensive.”
“A snarky joke for you is just a reminder of the demeaning comments women hear every single day. And trust me, it happens to all women,” McDaniel said, adding: “I’d suggest using Women’s History Month to lift us up instead of knocking us down.”
Conway also pushed back against the idea that there was anything disrespectful about the photo of her kneeling on the couch while taking a picture of President Trump with the presidents of historically black colleges.
“I helped usher in those 60+ HBCU Presidents after speaking with them in The Roosevelt room. I was taking pics and texting the pics to [the college presidents],” Conway told TheDC. “MANY of them have defended me on radio and social media.”
WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 27: Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway takes a picture of U.S. President Donald Trump with members of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the Oval Office of the White House, on February 27, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Aude Guerrucci-Pool/Getty Images)
Conway also pointed to a Washington Post article where Trump aide Omarosa Manigault spoke up on behalf of Conway.
“I saw her taking pictures — it was a very sweet moment, to be honest,” Manigault said to the Post. “She looked down at the picture after she got it, and I looked at her and said, ‘Kellyanne, did you get a good shot?’ Because I wanted one for my own records.”
“I literally looked at her and said, ‘Kellyanne, can you try to get a good shot?’ . . . She tried again; she positioned herself to get a better picture. It really was at my encouragement for her to try to capture such an important, historic moment.”
Johnny Taylor, president of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, spoke highly of the meeting with Trump afterwards, calling it “a significant and a positive first step in what we hope to be a productive working relationship” with the Trump administration.
Conway left open the possibility that she “may issue a statement” on Richmond’s joke.
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