Last night at a media event in Washington, Democrat Representative Cedric Richmond made a vile sexual joke about Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway. While even the Huffington Post and the Washington Post reported on what Richmond said, none of the big three networks or cable news found time to do so Thursday morning.
At the annual fundraising dinner hosted by the Washington Press Club Foundation, politicians and journalists mingled for a light-hearted night where Congressmen like Tim Scott and Cedric Richmond headlined.
After Republican Senator Scott joked about the media’s uproar over that photo of Kellyanne Conway kneeling on an Oval Office couch as a silly thing to get upset about because “a whole lot worse” had happened on that couch, that led Democrat Rep. Cedric Richmond to follow up with this remark:
CEDRIC RICHMOND: Tim, you kind’ve opened the door. You even mentioned Kellyanne and the picture on the sofa. But I really just want to know what was going on there, because, I won't tell anybody. And you can just explain to me that — that circumstance, because she really looked kind of familiar there in that position there. But don't answer. And I don't want you to refer back to the ’90s.
According to the Post, the joke left the room in an awkward silence, unlike Scott’s joke which had left the audience laughing.
Unlike the networks, the Post found Richmond’s remarks worth reporting on, calling them “cringe-worthy” and “downright offensive:”
“On the list of things not to say about any woman — let alone one of the most powerful women in Washington right now — well, this tops it,” said Amber Phillips.
Richmond responded mid-day Thursday, telling the paper that he did not mean the joke in a sexual way, but that is not how most people have interpreted what he said. Richmond even stuck to his guns, saying he was only noting that Conway’s seating position was “inappropriate” considering the guests present in the Oval Office at the time. But many didn’t buy Richmond’s excuse. CNN’s Jake Tapper even bashed it as “insulting:”
Congressman Richmond's "joke" was sexist and inappropriate and his denial of what he was suggesting is insulting. https://t.co/zHEmWGJry2
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) March 2, 2017
