Here it is: ABC's Bill Cosby exclusive, in which ABC News correspondent Linsey Davis asks the comedian (in a tiptoe-y, roundabout sort of way) about the rape allegations lobbed against him by over 30 women (video embedded below).
“Are you prepared for the backlash, if a young person comes up to you and says, ‘My mom says you”ve done some bad things.” How will you answer them if they are pressing you, ‘are you guilty? Did you do it? Are the allegations true?” she asked him.
“I”m not sure that they will come like that,” he answered, before continuing somewhat nonsensically: “I think that many of them will say, ‘Well you”re a hypocrite, you say one thing, you say the other.' My point is, okay, listen to me carefully. I'm telling you where the road is out: You wanna be here? Or, you wanna be concerned about who is giving you the message?”
Cosby gave the interview to promote his effort with the Black Belt Community Foundation, an organization with which he's helping to spread “awareness to the state of underfunded schools near Selma, Alabama.” Three representatives of the organization accompanied him during the interview, and when prompted one admitted that they did, indeed, think twice about associating themselves with Cosby before deciding “what was most important was how do we make sure that the world knows the Black Belt children matter?”
“Are you concerned at all that, given the allegations, that may overshadow your message [with the organization]?” Davis asked Cosby.
“I have been in this business 52 years and I…I”ve never seen anything like this,” Cosby answered. “Reality is the situation. And I can”t speak.”
As to questions of his legacy:
“I really know about what I”m going to do tomorrow. I have a ton of ideas to put on television, about people and their love for each other.”
Huh.