Why Are Some Still Defending Bill Cosby?
DR. DREW PINSKY, HLN HOST: Tonight, Bill Cosby, his drugs, cheating exposed, yet he is still embraced by the public and his wife. Plus Donald Trump doubles down. The Billionaire candidate goes off on a name-calling rampage. But we start it all off right now with the top of the feed. A thousand pages of graphic detail about sex, drugs, cheating. Some people still defending Bill Cosby. Watch this.</s>VANESSA BARNETT, SOCIAL COMMENTATOR: I think he felt like these women want me anyway, so if we dabble in drugs or dabble in alcohol or dabble in whatever, I do not think he even thought this was remotely close to rape, at all.</s>MICHAEL CATHERWOOD, CO-HOST OF "LOVE LINE" AND KABC RADIO: it does not seem like he really is -- even in the same ballpark as rape. Like he feels like he is just doing what Bill Cosby does.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE AUDIENCE: I do not think Bill Cosby did it. I think that it was consent.</s>DONDRE WHITFIELD, ACTOR, "THE COSBY SHOW": You During those times, you know, people were using some drugs in some strange ways for some very strange.</s>LISA BLOOM, TRIAL ATTORNEY: He gave her a pill. He said for menstrual cramps.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE AUDIENCE: No.</s>BLOOM: She wakes up in a hotel room --</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE AUDIENCE: She took the pill!</s>BLOOM: -- having been raped, she alleged.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE AUDIENCE: She is an adult. If somebody give me a pill, I am not taking it.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE AUDIENCE: No, I do not think it is rape. I think they willfully went to the hotel room</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE AUDIENCE: There will still be gold diggers and opportunists. I mean we have start stop taking away -- I mean women, we are very smart and we know what we are doing. We know sometimes we use what we have to get what we wan</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE AUDIENCE: Leave Bill Cosby alone. That is all I have to say. Leave Bill Cosby alone.</s>BLOOM: Can we stop giving Bill Cosby the benefit of the doubt?</s>PINSKY: Joining me, Samantha Schacher, host of "Pop Trigger" on Hulu.com; Areva Martin, attorney and legal consultant; Mike Catherwood, "Love Line" and KABC Radio Co-host with myself. He is also the host of "Chain Reaction on GSN. And back in our audience, Lisa Bloom, trial attorney at the Bloom Firm and legal analyst for Avvo.com.</s>AREVA MARTIN, ATTORNEY AND LEGAL CONSULTANT: This man has an incredible legacy. And, I think we are seeing this despite all of this evidence, thousand pages of deposition where he is so cavalierly talking about having sex with five different women, cheating on his wife --</s>PINSKY: Taking Quaaludes.</s>MARTIN: Taking Quaaludes, using prescription drugs to give to women or getting them for the purposes of giving them to women and people keeps talking about how wonderful Bill Cosby is.</s>SAMANTHA SCHACHER, HOST OF "POP TRIGGER" ON HULU.COM: Yes.</s>PINSKY: Well, but not just wonderful, Sam, but how women are --</s>SCHACHER: Are blaming the victims?</s>PINSKY: Well, not just blaming the victims. I know Lisa has strong feelings about this. But it is more sort of women bashing like, "Hey, man. We know what we are doing as women, and we have some personal responsibility to bear here. Because if we go into a hotel room with some celebrity, we know what that means. That means we are going to be raped."</s>SCHACHER: Yes. First of all, it is not all women. It is not all women, because a lot of women are supporting these 40-plus victims out there. I cannot wrap my head around the fact how people can still support Bill Cosby. Yes, we all once loved and admired him. I did, too. I watched rerun after rerun, but after 40 plus women are giving the same story --</s>MICHAEL CATHERWOOD, HOST OF "CHAIN REACTION ON GSN: Rerun was on what is happening.</s>SCHACHER: Quick. Quick.</s>CATHERWOOD: Thank you. That is all.</s>SCHACHER: But after all of these women are giving the same testimony who did not know one another, and they were also given a pill and then we find out that he admits to these prescription of Quaaludes, how can people not connect the dots?</s>PINSKY: That is it.</s>MARTIN: But I think it is important that we talk about the fact that these -- I think these women are in the minority.</s>SCHACHER: Yes.</s>MARTIN: We see them on your program. We see them on, you know, some shows, but far in -- Most women are saying it was reprehensible conduct. He should be punished criminally. He should be sued civilly and everything about him. T.V-wise, money-making-wise should be cut off.</s>PINSKY: Mike.</s>CATHERWOOD: I think Areva and Sam are right that if minority of women but -- it is a very vocal minority. I think it is all they about leave Bill Cosby alone.</s>SCHACHER: Me too.</s>PINSKY: And, Lisa, it is a surprising. I know you were doing battle with them right here yesterday. Does it surprise you?</s>LISA BLOOM, TRIAL ATTORNEY AT BLOOM FIRM: Yes. It does given the huge amount of evidence, but denial is what I am up against in all my case. And, by the way, I am doing my part on the civil litigation side, because we have sued him. But, you know, this what is you are up against. People do not want to believe it is real. They want to believe in the mythology of Bill Cosby, that he was our dad, that he is the Cliff Huxtable that we all saw, but then he is an actor.</s>PINSKY: But Lisa, that I can be sympathetic to people confusing the actor and the character and that the man and the actor, that sort of thing. But, several women stood right next to you there and said, "Oh no! Women, they need to be held accountable. Women are up to something."</s>CATHERWOOD: There is also an idea that this is some type of witch- hunt.</s>MARTIN: Yes.</s>CATHERWOOD: As if it is not, you know, a movement by women who truly have been affected, that there is some larger conspiracy to bring a guy down.</s>PINSKY: Let me bring in on the phone. I got Horace Cooper. He is from Project 2, the national leadership network of black conservatives. And, what I want to ask you is, I think you have an issue with not that this happened or not about his guilt or innocence, but the fact that the law was applied to him in a -- what shall we say, injudicious manner given his celebrity status and his moralizing? Is that a reasonable way to say it?</s>HORACE COOPER, CO-CHAIR OF PROJECT 21, THE NATIONAL LEADERSHIP NETWORK OF BLACK CONSERVATIVES: Well, that is exactly what the judge, who issued the opinion said was a contributing factor to the decision. That he was able to review the materials, and he saw a side of Bill Cosby that contradicted what he called the public moralizing role.</s>PINSKY: BUT thereby his deal that he had made was somehow undone. So in much like, Areva, it reminds you of the Ashley Madison situation. These people like -- I would love to have these people exposed; but you know what? They have a right to privacy and they made a deal with the website to keep these things private.</s>MARTIN: Well, I think we should be clear about what the judge said when he released excerpts from that lawsuit. What he said was that Bill Cosby stepped into the public domain beyond being a comedian and entertainer when he became this moralist and when he went into churches and community halls and, you know, used his platform to address issues like education and child rearing and parenting. And, so he was no longer this private figure. But let me say this, Dr. Drew, about these women. You know, I have represented women in similar lawsuits. And, often women become -- you know, they get the blame when they stand up to men like Bill Cosby --</s>PINSKY: Yes.</s>MARTIN: That is an unfortunate thing. But, I think the more programs like this, the more we talk about it --</s>SCHACHER: Yes.</s>MARTIN: -- people will start to realize the women are not gold diggers. They are trying to get some form of justice, because they have been victimized. And, I think that is important to keep talking about the victims, the victims, the victims.</s>SCHACHER: And, here is the thing about --</s>COOPER: Well, I want to interject for a second. I want to interject for a second.</s>PINSKY: Go ahead, real quick. Horace?</s>COOPER: The standard is not whether Bill Cosby is public or private. The real question is under what circumstances legally were they allowed to unseal those documents and his public status or his private status was not actually a factor. And if the judge said, "I am doing it because of that," that would have been procedural error that could have gotten the decision overturned. So, like or not like his public status versus his private status, but that is not the appropriate standard for review.</s>BLOOM: Well, it actually is the standard, because our court records in the U.S. are presumptively open. We do not have secret courts. We do not have things hidden. It is very unusual that something would be under seal. And when someone is a public figure, they lose the right, and that is why it was all revealed. And, by the way, 47 women call him a rapist.</s>SCHACHER: Yes.</s>BLOOM: I do not think rapists should have a right of privacy.</s>SCHACHER: Yes. Absolutely.</s>COOPER: Wow.</s>SCHACHER: Hold on.</s>COOPER: Now, that is dangerous. That is very dangerous.</s>BLOOM: I will tell you why, because that secrecy allow them to continue --</s>COOPER: If there were only three accusers then you get your right, but if there are 50 accusers, you lose your rights? So, that anytime, any litigation is occurring, we just ramp up accusers --</s>BLOOM: I did not say anytime.</s>COOPER: -- and that would determine whether you get your rights? Very dangerous. Very dangerous.</s>PINSKY: Horace, a question from the audience. Yes, ma`am.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE AUDIENCE: No. I just do not agree with it. It was a long time ago. I heard a lot of these women took cash from him.</s>PINSKY: See. Here it is.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE AUDIENCE: I feel like they -- I mean I am not just going to take some pill like and just go to some celebrity`s house.</s>CATHERWOOD: But he has admitted himself that he had these weird like roofie caddies that he would bring in and slip pills in women`s drink without them knowing.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE AUDIENCE: So, what took them so long to come forward?</s>SCHACHER: Oftentimes -- oftentimes because of the victim blaming and because of the stigma, it takes women victims, men too, sexual assault, rape, whatever those victims are --</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE AUDIENCE: 15 years?</s>SCHACHER: Yes, it could take forever. They could go to the grave with that because they are afraid of being blamed.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE AUDIENCE: I think they just jumped on the bandwagon.</s>SCHACHER: No.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE AUDIENCE: They just want some money. That is all.</s>SCHACHER: Really? Why?</s>OK -- CATHERWOOD: They are not standing to get any money now. All they have gained the courage of having the numbers behind them, because finally one, two, maybe three women had the courage to come forward. Now, they unseal these documents. And, now, they say, "Hey, maybe I can actually come forward without being publicly ostracized or abused by a lot of the people we are hearing from, right now."</s>PINSKY: And to sort of -- hang on. To put it in historical context too, some of these women did step forward at the time. And, because of the way we treated women 20, 30, 40 years ago, they literally were told to shut up by their bosses and people they spoke to. And, they were threatened with losing their job. They were told these was an important man for their employer, in that case -- well, the case I am thinking of was the "Playboy Club." She was told to shut her mouth.</s>SCHACHER: Yes.</s>PINSKY: There is a lot going on. And, by the way, it must have been confusing. Maybe something did not happen. He is such a great guy. And, he is Mr. Huxtable -- Dr. Huxtabel. It got to be very confusing for them at the time.</s>MARTIN: And, you should know that a lot of these women even went to the police. They went to the prosecuting attorney. They filed complaints and their complaints were not acted upon. So, these are not women that just sat on their rights. These are women that took action, but the system shut them down.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE AUDIENCE: I just feel bad for him.</s>SCHACHER: Hold on. Why do you feel bad for him? Because a serial rapist aside, let us even take away that allegation.</s>PINSKY: Listen.</s>SCHACHER: This is a really crappy person. Did you hear him in his deposition casually talking about all of the extramarital affairs that he has had? This is not a good guy.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE AUDIENCE: I am not judging his morality like, yes, he can be a crappy person. I just think this was just so long ago.</s>SCHACHER: I feel bad for the victims. I feel bad for the victims.</s>CATHERWOOD: Do you understand he did not have --</s>PINSKY: Guys, I got to go to break. I may have to go to the camera here and just speak directly to you guys. We will continue this. You stay right there. No, no, do not move. Do not move. Hold your thoughts. Later on, Donald Trump`s rampage continues. He is taking heat for revealing that a fellow candidate -- actually giving out a fellow candidate`s cell phone number live to the world. We are back after this.