The Associated Press has released a video showing Bill Cosby’s reaction to questions during a recent interview about allegations of sexual assault.
The footage was previously not shown in the published video of the November 6 interview. The AP decided to change that decision after additional sexual assault allegations against the 77-year-old comedian came to light.
Cosby and his wife Camille were speaking with the AP about a just-opened art exhibit at the Smithsonian. At the interview’s end, the question was posed about the allegations.
The interviewer asks, “I didn’t want to—I have to ask about your name coming up in the news recently regarding this comedian—”
Cosby cuts him off and says, “No, no, we don’t answer that.”
The interviewer responds, “I just wanted to ask if you wanted to respond at all about whether any of that was true.”
Cosby shakes his head and says, “There’s no response.”
The interviewer follows up, and Cosby says, “There’s no comment about that. And I’ll tell you why. I think you were told—I don’t want to compromise your integrity—but we don’t—I don’t—talk about it.”
After the interview, Cosby asks the interviewer for a request. “Now can I get something from you?” Cosby asks. “That none of that will be shown?”
The interviewer responds by saying he can’t promise this and that Cosby “didn’t say anything.”
“I know I didn’t say anything,” Cosby responds. “But I’m asking your integrity that says I didn’t want to say anything but I did answer you, in terms of I don’t want to say anything, of what value would it have.”
He goes on to say, “I would appreciate it if it was scuttled.”
Cosby also explains that he thought he didn’t have to tell the AP that such questions wouldn’t be answered: “And we thought, because it was AP, that it wouldn’t be necessary to go over that question with you.”
The AP says it never agreed to not ask questions about the allegations, and that the interview was on the record. Since the allegations, a proposed Cosby show on NBC has been cancelled, a Netflix special has been postponed, and the comic has received increasing scrutiny as additional women have claimed that Cosby sexually assaulted them.