Bill Cosby crept into President Obama’s press conference Wednesday on the historic nuclear deal with Iran.
While the scandal-plagued comedian wasn’t actually at the White House, reporters wanted to know the status of his Presidential Medal of Freedom, which activists want revoked.
“There’s no precedent for revoking a medal. We don’t have that mechanism, and as you know, I tend to make it a policy not to comment on the specifics of cases where there might be, if not criminal, but civil issues involved,” the President said.
Cosby has been accused by nearly 40 women of drugging their drinks, raping, coercing or sexually assaulting them. However, he has never been charged.
While President Obama didn’t directly comment on the allegations, he did have this to say about rape in general: “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.”
Earlier in the press conference, the President had a blunt answer for CBS News’ Major Garrett on the Iran nuclear deal, calling his question nonsense. Garrett asked if Obama was content with the release of the four Americans imprisoned in Iran not happening as part of the deal.
The President seemed angry about the question, initially answering that “he loves” how Garrett crafted it.
“The notion that I’m content, as I celebrate, with American citizens languishing in Iranian jails… Major, that’s nonsense, and you should know better. I’ve met with the families of some of those folks, nobody’s content.”
Jonathan Karl asked if it gives the President pause that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad praised the deal as a victory for Iran and that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected it as a historic mistake.
“The facts are the facts; I’m not concerned about what others say about it,” Obama said, adding he hopes Congress evaluates the deal based on facts rather than politics. He went on to say arguments from critics that this agreement didn’t solve all of the issues with Iran “defy logic.”
Karl’s question drew some social buzz as Jon Karl began to trend on Twitter. The ABC correspondent tried to ask a second question about Donald Trump, but the President cut him off.
Obama said the deal cuts off every avenue Iran had of obtaining a nuclear weapon while gaining unprecedented monitoring of Iran’s nuclear facilities. He promised that Iran will face new and harsher sanctions if they don’t honor the agreement.
Obama also took on critics by name: “None of them have presented to me or the American people a better alternative,” he said about Netanyahu and Republican politicians.
Watch the video of President Obama’s comments on Bill Cosby below.