Well, that was unexpected. Chelsea Clinton and Kellyanne Conway shared a moment on Twitter on Friday, March 3, after Clinton slammed a joke made at the White House counselor’s expense.
On Wednesday, Representative Cedric Richmond (D-LA) made an off-color joke during the Washington Press Club Foundation’s 73rd annual congressional dinner about a recent viral photo of Conway, 50, kneeling on a couch in the Oval Office.
“I really just want to know what was going on because I won’t tell anybody and you can just explain to me that circumstance, because she really looked kind of familiar in that position,” he said, according to The Hill. “Don’t answer — and I don’t want you to refer back to the 1990s.”
Richmond’s controversial comment came in response to Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), who earlier in the day had quipped that a “whole lot worse” had happened on the White House couch, alluding to former president Bill Clinton’s sexual relationship with intern Monica Lewinsky in the 1990s.
Many took Richmond’s comment to be a sexual innuendo and called him out for his unsavory words. The senator issued a statement on Thursday, March 2, to clarify what he meant with his comment.
“Since some people have interpreted my joke to mean something that it didn’t, I think it is important to clarify what I mean,” he said in the statement. “Where I grew up, saying that someone is looking or acting ‘familiar’ simply means that they are behaving too comfortably. I decided to use that joke due to the large social media backlash over her inappropriate posture considering there were more than 60 [historically black college and university] presidents in the room.”
When Clinton, 37, caught wind of the offensive joke, she took to Twitter to slam Richmond for his careless remarks.
“Despicable,” she tweeted on Friday. “I hope @KellyannePolls receives the apology she deserves — certainly never thought I’d write that & I mean every word.”
Conway wrote back several hours later with an appreciative tweet of her own. “Thank you, @ChelseaClinton,” she wrote. “As strong women, as moms to Charlottes … appreciate you speaking out on this.”
Clinton is mom of daughter Charlotte, 2, and son Aidan, 8 months, with her husband, Marc Mezvinsky. Conway and her husband, George T. Conway III, share four kids, including 12-year-old twins George and Claudia, and Charlotte, who is either 7 or 8. (The former Trump campaign manager opened up about her children in a CBS Sunday Morning interview set to air on Sunday, March 5, but did not identify her two younger children by name.)
Conway explained Tuesday that she “meant no disrespect” by perching atop the couch, adding that she was just there to take photos of Trump and his HBCU guests.
