WASHINGTON - Congressman Cedric Richmond released a statement apologizing for irreverent comments he made at an awards ceremony last week.

“After a discussion with people I know and trust I understand the way my remarks have been received by many,” Rep. Richmond said. “I have consistently been a champion for women and women’s issues, and because of that the last thing I would want to ever do is utter words that would hurt or demean them. I apologize to Kellyanne Conway and everyone who has found my comments to be offensive.”

Richmond's comments came as he headlined Wednesday’s Washington Press Club Foundation’s annual awards dinner. On Thursday, he clarified what he meant in an ad-libbed joke about White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, who was photographed kneeling on a sofa in the Oval Office.

Earlier in the program, Sen. Tim Scott joked “a whole lot worse” had happened on that sofa in the 1990s, a reference to former president Bill Clinton's affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

Richmond attempted to follow up Scott's joke with his own.

“Tim, you kind of opened the door,” he said. “I really just want to know what was going on there, because, you know, I won’t tell anybody. 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.”