Chip Somodevilla/Larry Busacca/Getty ImagesIn between questions about the Iran nuclear deal, the U.S. economy and our nation's broken prison system, President Barack Obama was also asked today about the still-roiling controversy surrounding Bill Cosby.
Make that past Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Bill Cosby.
"There's no precedent for revoking a medal," Obama told reporters during a news conference Wednesday. "We don't have that mechanism, and as you know, I tend to make it a policy not to comment on the specifics of case where there might still be criminal if not civil issues involved."
Cosby, who was honored in 2002 by then President George W. Bush, has denied via his attorneys the allegations of sexual assault or attempted sexual assault since leveled at him by more than 40 women. Court documents from 2005 fron a civil suit filed against Cosby that were recently unsealed for reporters showed that he admitted in a deposition to having obtained quaaludes to give to women he wanted to have sex with.
"I'll say this," Obama added today, "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. And I think this country, any civilized country, should have no tolerance for rape."
Democratic Sens. Claire McKaskill and Kirsten Gillibrand have both supported the idea of stripping Cosby's medal, which is considered the United States' highest civilian honor. McKaskill said last week upon hearing about the 2005 deposition, "He probably deserves to go to prison."
"Someone who has admitted to drugging women in order to have sex with them should not be given the highest honor," Gillibrand, who endorsed a bid from Chicago-based advocacy group Promoting Awareness/Victim Empowerment to revoke the medal, told reporters last weekend.