--- title: Bill Cosby: President Obama May Reconsider Medal of Freedom description: Josh Earnest said the president would "take a look" at revoking Bill Cosby's Presidential Medal of Freedom if Congress approves it. canonical: https://time.com/4172773/white-house-bill-cosby-medal-of-freedom/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-08T15:44:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:46:44.893Z article:section: Politics og:title: Obama May 'Take a Look' at Revoking Bill Cosby's Medal of Freedom og:description: If Congress approves legislation affirming his power to do so og:url: https://time.com/4172773/white-house-bill-cosby-medal-of-freedom/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8b91a988e994ec8d/6988774bf887dc2809e93f2f/bill-cosby.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1364 og:image:height: 767 og:image:alt: Bill Cosby Arraignment og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Obama May 'Take a Look' at Revoking Bill Cosby's Medal of Freedom twitter:description: If Congress approves legislation affirming his power to do so twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8b91a988e994ec8d/6988774bf887dc2809e93f2f/bill-cosby.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Obama May 'Take a Look' at Revoking Bill Cosby's Medal of Freedom > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jan 8, 2016 3:44 PM UTC  Bill Cosby, arrested and charged with aggravated indecent assault, in Elkins Park, Pa. on Dec. 30, 2015. Bill Cosby, arrested and charged with aggravated indecent assault, in Elkins Park, Pa. on Dec. 30, 2015. Montgomery County District Attorney's Office/Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jan 8, 2016 3:44 PM UTC President Obama [will “take a look” at revoking Bill Cosby’s Presidential Medal of Freedom](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/white-house-bill-revoke-cosbys-presidential-medal-freedom/story?id=36149811) if Congress empowers him to do so, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said. Arizona Republican Congressman Paul Gosar has introduced a bill to “affirm the power of the president” to revoke Cosby’s medal, ABC reports, after Obama said in July that “[there is no precedent for revoking the medal](http://time.com/3959225/bill-cosby-barack-obama-presidential-medal-freedom/).” Earnest told ABC that if Congress approves Gosar’s legislation, Obama would look at it. “It’s something that Congress will have to consider,” Earnest said. “We’ll take a look at the proposal if Congress takes a vote on it and we’ll let you know if the President chooses to sign it.” “Symbolic commemorations are always difficult to deal with,” Earnest said, expressing concern over creating the precedent of “undoing” medals. “But I think the President was quite clear in that news conference in showing his own personal disgust for the kind of behavior that Mr. Cosby is accused of, and you know the President made clear that he doesn’t have any tolerance for it.” Cosby has been accused of sexual assault by more than 50 women, and was [charged with aggravated indecent assault](http://time.com/4164142/bill-cosby-sexual-assault-2/) on Dec. 30. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4172773/white-house-bill-cosby-medal-of-freedom/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4172773/white-house-bill-cosby-medal-of-freedom/"},"headline":"Obama May 'Take a Look' at Revoking Bill Cosby's Medal of Freedom","datePublished":"2016-01-08T15:44:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:46:44.893Z","description":"If Congress approves legislation affirming his power to do so","url":"https://time.com/4172773/white-house-bill-cosby-medal-of-freedom/","keywords":["White House","celebrities","Bill Cosby"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8b91a988e994ec8d/6988774bf887dc2809e93f2f/bill-cosby.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8b91a988e994ec8d/6988774bf887dc2809e93f2f/bill-cosby.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Bill Cosby Arraignment","caption":"Bill Cosby Arraignment","creditText":"Montgomery County District Attorney's Office/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4172773/white-house-bill-cosby-medal-of-freedom/","name":"Obama May 'Take a Look' at Revoking Bill Cosby's Medal of Freedom"}}]}] ```