Donald Trump has some advice for Bill Cosby.
None too surprisingly, the Celebrity Apprentice host thinks that Cosby is "not doing a good job" dealing with the pile-up of sexual assault allegations that have resurfaced, with multiple women coming forward to tell their stories. Though stories have been written about the allegations against Cosby here and there over the years, the current onslaught seems to have been triggered by comedian Hannibal Buress saying during a performancelast month, "Yeah, but you raped women, Bill Cosby, so turn the crazy down a couple notches."
"Well, I think it's very sad and frankly I don't think he's handling it well," Trump leveled with E! News last night at The New York Ball: 20th Anniversary Benefit for ESE when asked if he had any take on the Cosby situation.
"He should say something," Trump added, "because he's being accused of terrible things—and to have absolutely no comment, I think, he's getting very bad advice from a PR standpoint, and he should do it differently.
"He's not doing a good job of handling it."
On Sunday, Cosby's attorney, John P. Schmitt issued the following statement: "Over the last several weeks, decade-old, discredited allegations against Mr. Cosby have surfaced. "The fact that they are being repeated does not make them true. Mr. Cosby does not intend to dignify these allegations with any comment. He would like to thank all his fans for the outpouring of support and assure them that, at age 77, he is doing his best work. There will be no further statement from Mr. Cosby or any of his representatives."
Then Janice Dickinson said in an interview that aired Tuesday on Entertainment Tonight that Cosby had assaulted her and she wanted to include that story in her 2006 autobiography but his lawyers pressured her not to. Attorney Martin Singer slammed the reality-TV star's story—both the assault accusations and the part about Cosby's lawyers—as a "complete lie."
For his part, Cosby was asked about the allegations during a sit-down with NPR that aired Nov. 15 but remained mum—so mum that host Scott Simon said on air that Cosby was shaking his head no.
The Associated Press has also resurfaced an on-camera interview with Cosby from earlier this month in which the former sitcom star both insists he won't be answering any questions related to the allegations and also presses the reporter to not include his refusal to answer such questions in the finished product.
—Reporting by James Chairman