Comedian blasts critics in first interview with Black Press
By Stacy M. Brown
Contributing Writer
Freshly released from prison after having his conviction overturned by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, Bill Cosby has opened up like never before.
In a conversation with the Black Press of America, and his only extensive comments since his June 30 release after nearly three years in prison, Cosby took his detractors — and others — to task.
Using terms like Nazis and fascists to describe those who mocked or criticized him, Cosby unloaded and took exception to claims he was released on a “technicality.”
“The court’s decision was not a technicality,” Cosby stated emphatically. “These people sound like they haven’t read what the judges have written. It’s not a technicality. These [detractors] don’t want to know anything. It’s like the woman who said she knows five women that I drugged and raped. Well, where are they?”
For many commentators, the elephant in the room remains the reported 60 women who have made claims that Cosby assaulted them. Cosby attributed that high number to famed women’s rights attorney Gloria Allred, who demanded and advertised that $100 million be put in an account for any alleged victims.
Cosby believes her scheme has ultimately backfired.
“The seven pages by the (Pennsylvania) Supreme Court justices makes too much sense,” Cosby said. “How about if these 60 women are lying and they’ve been taken care of?
“It has been proven that Gloria Allred darkened the skin of some of them, braided their hairs to try and show this wasn’t racist with all white women. People know this. What about the woman who lied about Emmett Till?
“There was a young man who went all the way into court, and what happened? Turns out, the woman in the courtroom who accused the young man said she was only angry because he didn’t call her back.”
Cosby also lashed out at comedians he paved the way for who went along with false reports about him or otherwise remained silent. He laughed at the idea that Netflix gave a combined $200 million to Eddie Murphy, Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock and Arsenio Hall, who were championed on Saturday Night Live as “The four bosses of comedy.”
“Where was Kevin Hart? Where was Sinbad?” Cosby asked.
In Cosby’s now-infamous civil deposition, which was unsealed and led to the overturned criminal trial verdict, he said he was criticized and claimed he was often misquoted as saying he “drugged women to rape them.” Cosby was never charged or convicted of rape.
Cosby, however, responded “yes” in the deposition to a question of whether he had ever provided a Quaalude to a woman that he was interested in having sex with. He indicated the alleged Quaalude offer is a “far cry” from slipping someone a drug and, without their consent, engaging in sex.
Cosby suggested that the seven-page ruling by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court should be “required reading,” particularly for those reporting on the case. The ruling generated his “Nazis and fascists” references.
“There’s a big smile on my face,” Cosby said. “A big smile on my face because I was there. I know what happened. I’m watching and hearing these fascists and Nazis. I watched them really come out of the woodworks as termites.
“The infestation of when [former President] Donald Trump came through, and they just let it all hang out. That’s who they are. That’s who their ancestors are. They want their ancestors to be people who came here for religious freedoms after being persecuted — but by whom? Things weren’t right in dear old England.”
Cosby and his wife of nearly 60 years, Camille, have donated more than $200 million to various colleges and universities. The philanthropy includes Howard University in Washington, D.C., a prominent Black college where “Cosby Show” co-star Phylicia Rashad serves as a dean in the College of Fine Arts.
Dozens of colleges and universities gave Cosby honorary degrees based on the unprecedented support from Cosby and his wife, but many rescinded those honors before Cosby’s 2017 and 2018 trials.
After the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Cosby’s trial, conviction and sentence unconstitutional, Rashad tweeted that “justice had finally occurred.”
But Rashad faced strong backlash from social media and historically Black universities, forcing her to issue a second statement that included her empathy toward sexual assault victims. Cosby took issue with the treatment of Rashad.
“They didn’t like what she was doing before,” Cosby said of Rashad’s initial public support of him. “The power of money, the power of money supporting things that people cannot find the money to support themselves. They have to listen to donors. The donors command your directions. Surely, somebody, some writers — male and female — at BlackPressUSA, can respond to this because it has got to wake people up.”
Cosby told the Black Press that he remains skeptical about whether he received maximum effort from his lead attorney, Tom Mesereau.
“I remember Tom telling me on his cellphone that a woman working in his building came down and told him that I was guilty,” Cosby said. “He never said, ‘we will see about that.
“I know whether or not I drugged so and so. … There were so many things unvetted. They fly up in the air and fly away. I was there, and I know what happened.”
Stacy M. Brown is a Senior National Correspondent for the National Newspaper Publishers Association. He can be reached at @StacyBrownmedia.
