Chelsea Clinton comes to defense of Kellyanne Conway over lewd joke

In a rare Twitter truce between the Clintons and the Trump White House, Chelsea Clinton defended Kellyanne Conway, who had been the subject of a crude joke by a Democratic congressman.

Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.) was speaking at a congressional awards dinner Wednesday when he made a wisecrack about a widely circulated photograph of Conway kneeling on a White House sofa. Over the course of Thursday there were repeated calls for Richmond to apologize to the White House adviser, including calls from the Democratic governor of Louisiana, John Bel Edwards, and from Clinton.

“Despicable,” wrote Clinton on Twitter Friday morning. “I hope @KellyannePolls receives the apology she deserves-certainly never thought I’d write that & I mean every word.”

“Thank you, @ChelseaClinton,” replied Conway in a retweet of the former first daughter’s message. “As strong women, as moms to Charlottes…appreciate you speaking out on this.”

Richmond attempted to explain that his joke had been misinterpreted.

“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 night of levity,” Richmond said in a statement Thursday. “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 HBCU Presidents in the room.”