Comic 'should be stripped of Presidential honour'

The White House has been dragged into the storm of sexual assault claims surrounding Bill Cosby.

A survivors' campaign group is calling for the comic to be stripped of the Presidential Medal of Freedom he received in received in 2002, and will soon force an official response from the Obama administration.

The petition on the White House website set up by Chicago-based PAVE is about to hit 100,000 signatures within two days of being set up – the threshold at which officials are committed to issuing a response.

It would be unprecedented to revoke a Presidential Medal of Freedom, and could prove contentious as Cosby has never faced prosecution in any of the dozens of cases in which he is accused, let alone been found guilty.

The petition says the honour 'is the highest award bestowed on civilians for their contributions to society. Bill Cosby does not deserve to be on the list of distinguished recipients.'

It adds: 'We cannot yet give his accusers their day in court, but we can fight back in the court of public opinion.'

The petition from the group, Promoting Awareness Victim Empowerment, is the latest blow to Cosby's legacy, which has taken a severe battering this week, following the publication of court papers in which he admitted giving women drugs so he could have sex with them.

The comic, now 77, made the confession under oath during a 2005 sex assault case that was settled out of court. Now lawyers for the woman who settled that case, Andrea Constand, is pushing for the full deposition be released.

Extracts were made public earlier this week after The Associated Press went to court to compel their publication. The judge ruled that because Cosby had 'donned the mantle of public moralist' placed their contents in the public interest.

In the 2005 deposition, Cosby was asked about sedative pills: 'When you got the quaaludes, was it in your mind that you were going to use these quaaludes for young women that you wanted to have sex with?'

'Yes,' Cosby replied.

When Constand's lawyer asked: 'Did you ever give any of those young women the quaaludes without their knowledge?' Cosby's attorney objected and told him not to answer the question.

The release of the papers has sparked further backlashes against the comedian, with the revelations that

• Powerful Hollywood agency CAA has quietly dropped Cosby from their books.

• Disney removed his statue from the 'hall of fame' plaza at its Walt Disney World theme park in Florida

• Officials in North Philadelphia are considering removing a mural showing Cosby alongside Nelson Mandela, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

• A historically black college in southwest Ohio is considering changing the title of its Cosby Communications Centre, named after the comedian

However, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce says it won't remove Cosby's star from the Hollywood Walk of Fame, declaring is considered 'a part of the historic fabric' of the pavement.

And a prominent group of black conservatives has defended Cosby. Archbishop Council Nedd II of Project 21 said Cosby's accusers were 'opportunistic' and should 'live with' whatever happened in the past.

He said in a statement: 'What we have seen over the last year is Bill Cosby repeatedly attacked and tried in the media. Based on the fact that none of the accusers, seen on the variety of news and talk shows, saw fit to push for criminal charges when the events occurred, tells me that they made a personal and calculated decision to live with whatever transpired. To me, it seems opportunistic to seek media headlines now.'

Whoopi Goldberg has also told critics to 'back off me' after she refused to condemn Cosby. 'He has not been taken to jail or tried on anything,' she said on American TV show The View.

Published: 10 Jul 2015