File Photo of Barack Obama.
US President Barack Obama weighed in Wednesday on the Bill Cosby sex assault scandal, saying that drugging and having sex with someone without consent - a scenario that parallels allegations made against the comedian - amounts to rape.
Obama made the remarks at a White House press conference when asked whether he would revoke the Presidential Medal of Freedom bestowed in 2002 on Cosby, who has been accused of sexual misconduct spanning four decades.
"There's no precedent for revoking a medal. We don't have that mechanism," Obama told reporters, stressing that it was his policy not to comment "on the specifics of cases where there might still be, if not criminal, then civil issues involved."
"I'll say this. 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," Obama said.
"I think this country, any civilized country, should have no tolerance for rape."
The 77-year-old actor, comedian and star of the hit family sitcom "The Cosby Show" has been accused of misconduct by dozens of women over the years.
In the most recent revelation, which came via court documents that were unsealed earlier this month following a request by the Associated Press, Cosby admitted supplying powerful sedatives to a woman in order to have sex with her.
Cosby's lawyers had long sought to block publication of the court transcripts, arguing that his right to privacy meant the records should be kept sealed.
But US District Court Judge Eduardo Robreno rejected that argument, citing the contrast between "Bill Cosby, the public moralist and Bill Cosby, the subject of serious allegations concerning improper (and perhaps criminal) conduct."
In the deposition, Cosby said: "I meet Ms (T, whose name was redacted to preserve her anonymity) in Las Vegas. She meets me back stage. I give her Quaaludes," he said. "We then have sex."
Cosby's backers have steadily abandoned him. One of his last public supporters fled Tuesday, when Oscar-winning actress Whoopi Goldberg said she no longer believed he was innocent.