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Obama Just Called Out Bill Cosby

by Jenny Hollander

On Wednesday, when asked during a press conference about the campaign to revoke accused rapist Bill Cosby's Presidential Medal of Freedom, Obama offered a telling response. The president said that there was no precedent to officially revoke the medal, but made sure he was clear about where he stood on the issue: Obama hinted Bill Cosby is guilty of the rapes he's been accused of, noting: "I think this country, any civilized country, should have no tolerance for rape. ... 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."

Cosby has been accused by more than 30 women of drugging and raping them. In a recently unveiled deposition brought to light by the Associated Press, Cosby admitted in 2005 that he had purchased Quaaludes with the intention of giving them to women. For many, this proved what was already widely suspected: even his former celebrity supporters, like Whoopi Goldberg and former The Cosby Show co-star Joseph C. Phillips, have backed away from the 73-year-old comedian, admitting publicly that they, too, believe him to be guilty. "I got to say, all of the information that's out there kind of points to guilt," Goldberg told ABC Tuesday. Phillips penned a blog this week entitled, "Of course Bill Cosby is guilty!"

A New York Post report earlier this week alleged that Cosby's wife Camille knew that her husband had cheated on her, but maintained that all sex was consensual.

You can listen to a clip of Obama talking about Cosby below.

In 2002, George W. Bush awarded Cosby the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Mark Wilson/Getty Images News/Getty Images

Because a petition demanding the Medal of Freedom was taken away from Cosby gained more than 100,000 signatures, the White House has found itself in a position when it is technically forced to address it. However, as Obama noted, there is no "mechanism" for revoking presidential medals like the one Cosby was awarded.

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