After a photo of Kellyanne Conway awkwardly kneeling on an Oval Office couch was released, some Democrats alleged that her positioning was disrespectful to the office’s history and somehow offensive to the African-Americans in the room.
Now, some Democrats think they have a free pass to engage in the sexist mockery they lecture Republicans about. The latest culprits? Democratic Rep. Cedric Richmond and noted marijuana enthusiast and former associate director in the White House Office of Public Engagement, Kal Penn.
So much for being the Party of Tolerance and Inclusion.
The Louisiana congressman commented on the photo at the Washington Press Club Foundation congressional dinner, saying “she really looked kind of familiar there in that [kneeling] position there.”
Richmond’s office released a statement after some sharp reaction to his comments, saying that the joke was not about fellatio, but that “‘familiar’ simply means they are behaving too comfortably.” Presumably, the implication here is that one of the most powerful women in the White House shouldn’t act too relaxed in her boss’s office.
In case innuendo about fellatio wasn’t demeaning enough, Penn tweeted a photo of himself mocking Conway’s appearance and looking mentally disabled. The Huffington Post declared the photo an “example of expert trolling.”
When initially asked about her position on the couch, Conway said “I, of course, meant no disrespect, I was being asked to take a picture in a crowded room with the press behind us. I was asked to take a certain angle and was doing exactly that.”