Names and faces
Comedian and actor Bill Cosby says he doesn’t expect to testify at his Pennsylvania sexual-assault trial in June. The comedian spoke to SiriusXM radio host Michael Smerconish in an interview broadcast Tuesday. Smerconish says he agreed to air excerpts from audio provided by the Cosby family if he could interview the comedian. “When you have to deal with examination, cross-examination, et cetera, et cetera, more than two sides to every story, sometimes it’s four or five,” Cosby, 79, said in the radio interview. “And what people want to say and want you to say and how they maneuver, and, yes, I do have lawyers protect me — objection; sustained. But I just don’t want to sit there and have to figure out what I believe is a truthful answer to whether or not I’m opening a can of something that my lawyers are scrambling.” Cosby said it was the first time since 2015 that he had given an interview after dozens of women accused him of sexual assault, causing him to break off his touring schedule and virtually disappear from public view. But he also said that he has “never, never” lost the support of his wife. Daughter Ensa Cosby also said in the audio statement that she believes that “racism has played a role” in the accusations against her father. Bill Cosby said that “could be.” Jurors will be selected next week for his June trial on charges that he drugged and assaulted Andrea Constand, a former Temple University staff member, in 2004. Cosby has denied the accusations.
Newly crowned Miss USA Kara McCullough on Tuesday clarified remarks she made about health care during Sunday’s Miss USA pageant. McCullough was asked, “Do you think affordable health care for all U.S. citizens is a right or a privilege, and why?” McCullough, a 25-year-old scientist who works at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, quickly set social media ablaze with her response: “I’m definitely going to say it’s a privilege. As a government employee, I am granted health care. And I see firsthand that for one to have health care, you need to have jobs. So therefore, we need to continue to cultivate this environment that we’re given the opportunities to have health care as well as jobs to all the American citizens worldwide.” On Tuesday, McCullough appeared on Good Morning America. Co-anchor Michael Strahan noted that her comments — that health care is a privilege, not a right — “put a little heat” on her online. “Were you surprised by this reaction?” he asked. “Not at all,” McCullough said. “I believe that’s what America is based on — like, having opinions and views.” She said she’s willing to own what she said, but clarified that because she has a job, she’s “privileged to have health care and I do believe that it should be a right, and I hope and pray moving forward that health care is a right for all worldwide.”