Story highlights Pelosi was asked if Richmond owes Conway an apology

Pelosi also was asked whether Democrats cede the moral high ground by failing to rebuke a party member

Washington (CNN) House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi declined on Sunday to criticize a fellow Democrat's crude joke about top Donald Trump aide Kellyanne Conway.

In an interview with CNN's "State of the Union," anchor Jake Tapper asked Pelosi about a joke Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond told at the Washington Press Club Foundation's congressional dinner last week about a photo showing Conway on her knees on an Oval Office sofa.

In his joke, Richmond seemed to allude to President Bill Clinton's extramarital affair with Monica Lewinsky in the Oval Office.

"I really just want to know what was going on there, because, you know, I won't tell anybody," Richmond said. "And you can just explain to me that circumstance -- because she really looked kind of familiar in that position there. Don't answer -- and I don't want you to refer back to the 1990s."

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel called Richmond's remark "disgusting" and "offensive" in a tweet.

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