U.S. President Barack Obama (Photo : REUTERS/MIKE THEILER)
Plying drinks with drugs is rape, and Washington has zero tolerance for those kind of acts that comedian Bill Cosby is accused off. While indicating that he feels that a person accused of those actions could be guilty of the crime that about 50 women are accusing the comedian, U.S. President Barack Obama said that he would not take back the Presidential Medal of Freedom the White House gave to Cosby.
Obama said on Wednesday in a press conference that there is neither precedent nor a mechanism for revoking a medal. President George W. Bush was the one who conferred the medal on Cosby in 2002.
The president was careful in his choice of words because the cases against Cosby are now in the courts. The closest comment he made was saying that "If you give a woman or a man, for that matter, without his or her knowledge, a drug, and then have sex with that person without consent, that's rape," quotes the New York Times.
He continued, "And this country, any civilized country, should have no tolerance for rape."
According to court documents recently unsealed, Cosby admitted to giving Quaaludes to young women he wanted to have sex with. However, the comedian and his wife insist the sex with these women as well as drug use were consensual.
Two days before Obama commented on Cosby, Joseph C. Phillips, a co-star of the comedian in the iconic 1980s TV hit "The Cosby Show," blogged his thoughts on the case and shared his belief that the show's star is guilty of the accusations.
Phillips recalls that Cosby was a boyhood idol, but the comedian was a known ladies' man, at the same time a good father and husband. He adds that it was "common knowledge that Bill played around."
The former actor's advice to Cosby is live a quiet country life and allow people like him "who truly love you to preserve just a bit of our enchantment."
