"No tolerance for rape"

President Obama's press conference Wednesday to talk about the historic nuclear weapon deal with Iran was overshadowed when a reporter asked whether Bill Cosby's Medal of Freedom award should be revoked amid the actor admitting he drugged women to have sex with him.

President Obama responds to Bill Cosby drugs-for-sex admission. Photo/CD Brown

The president replied saying, "there is no mechanism" for such a thing, and went on to say that giving a woman (or a man, for that matter) drugs without their knowledge and then have sex with that person without consent, is rape.  (Former Cosby Show star agrees).

From the White House transcript...

And with respect to the Medal of Freedom, there’s no precedent for revoking a medal.  We don’t have that mechanism.  And as you know, I tend to make it a policy not to comment on the specifics of cases where there might still be, if not criminal, then civil issues involved.

I’ll say this:  If you give a woman -- or a man, for that matter -- without his or her knowledge, a drug, and then have sex with that person without consent, that’s rape.  And I think this country -- any civilized country -- should have no tolerance for rape. 

The institution that is Bill Cosby has come up in another Washington, D.C. conversation recently when the owners of the new Ben's Chili Bowl on H Street, NE, at their grand opening last week, was asked if the mural of Cosby on their U Street restaurant should come down amid the Cosby revelation. The owners said the mural will not be painted over.

President Obama dined at the U Street restaurant in 2009. (Video)