If anyone thought a now-free Bill Cosby was going to lay low for a bit after having his rape conviction and sentence suddenly overturned last week, think again. The much-accused actor once known as “America’s Dad” chose America’s Independence Day to prove them wrong.
In a somewhat confusing, scattered statement today, Cosby lashed out at Howard University’s rebuke of his former on-air spouse Phylicia Rashad after her enthusiasm at the disgraced actor’s release from prison. Going from bad to worse, Cosby also decried the bloody attempted coup at the Capitol in January as the fault of the mainstream media, and not MAGA morons. It was not a good look, to put it mildly, for the 83-year-old once legally labeled “sexually violent predator.”
“Howard University you must support ones Freedom of Speech (Ms. Rashad), which is taught or suppose to be taught everyday at that renowned law school, which resides on your campus,” the statement declared, speaking of the fictional Claire Huxtable’s real-life assertion of support for Cosby’s release on June 30. The actor was let go last week on a technicality after serving over two years of an up-to-10-year sentence for sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004.
Then, the legally blind Cosby, who fashioned himself in a long line of political prisoners during his stint in Pennsylvania’s State Correctional Institution at Phoenix, went supernova in his latest public remarks.
“This (sic) mainstream media are the Insurrectionists, who stormed the Capitol. Those same Media Insurrectionists are trying to demolish the Constitution of these United State of America on this Independence Day,” the statement put out by Cosby’s longtime spokesman Andrew Wyatt added. “No technicality — it’s a violation of ones rights & we the people stand in support of Ms. Phylicia Rashad.”
Not quite Bill Pullman’s Independence Day speech in the 1996 blockbuster of the same name, if you know what I mean.
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Whatever Cosby might think of the Donald Trump-stroked violent siege of Congress, as then VP Mike Pence and a joint House of Representatives and Senators gathered to formally confirm Joe Biden’s electoral college victory, the postulation by the actor likely will only further his isolation and toxicity.
Also, Cosby, who is hinting at going out on a comedy tour, is taking a very particular POV on Rashad and her much-criticized comments on her old co-star’s exit from jail and a criminal record.
As a firestorm erupted over Rashad’s comments, the now-Howard dean tried to pour cold water on the outrage.
Within hours, Rashad tweeted that she “fully support[s] survivors of sexual assault coming forward. My post was in no way intended to be insensitive to their truth …My heartfelt wish is for healing.”
The HBCU, which counts Vice President Kamala Harris, the late Chadwick Boseman, Jessye Norman, Toni Morrison and Black-ish’s Anthony Anderson among its illustrious alumni, replied with a comment of its own after Rashad’s initial post of “a miscarriage of justice is corrected!” at Cosby’s release thanks to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
The remarks that “victims must be heard and believed, ” and that Rashad’s first tweet “lacked sensitivity” left no doubt where the school was coming down in the controversial matter.
Not finished with her apology tour, Rashad penned a letter to Howard students and their parents late on July 2. “My remarks were in no way directed towards survivors of sexual assault,” the new-ish College of Fine Arts Dean said. “I vehemently oppose sexual violence, find no excuse for such behavior, and I know that Howard University has a zero-tolerance policy toward interpersonal violence.”
As for Cosby himself, after staying silent during a hyped press conference hours after his release last week, the actor has kept his pronouncements to social media and drops by his communications team and defense lawyers.
Also, even though the Keystone State’s top court vacated Cosby’s sentence because of a 2005 deal with the then-Montgomery County D.A. not to press criminal charges in the rape of Temple University employee Constand, the actor is far from being declared innocent of the charges.
For one thing, Cosby paid Constand millions in a civil settlement over 15 years ago. Secondly, Cosby admitted in 2005 depositions to giving Constand several Benadryl pills on the night of the alleged assault in his Philadelphia-area mansion in 2004. Still, The Cosby Show creator-star has insisted through various investigations, two trials and the sentencing hearing that the encounter was totally consensual.
Additionally, more than 60 women have claimed that Cosby drugged and assaulted them over the decades with a cocktail of pills and alcohol. A number of those women were among the onlookers at the two trials and the sentencing hearing in the fall of 2018. Also Judge Steven O’Neill permitted D.A. Steele to have five other accusers, including ex-America’s Next Top Model judge Janice Dickinson, take the stand in the second trial and tell their stories of being assaulted by Cosby.