Defiant Whoopi Goldberg Defends Bill Cosby Comments: “No One Has Convicted Him. … Back Off Me!”

A defiant Whoopi Goldberg defended her “innocent until proven guilty” comments about accused rapist Bill Cosby in the face of criticism.

Even though Goldberg said Tuesday, as she often does when she voices a controversial opinion, that she didn’t care about people’s texts and comments, it seems she saw some.

“People have been coming after me and saying they’re going to snatch my family,” she said. “It’s like being Frankenstein: people coming after you with fire and they’re going to burn you.”

But she insisted those threats wouldn’t stop her from voicing her opinion.

“None of you … telling me you’re coming after me because you don’t like what I said is going to change the fact that no one has convicted him,” she said. “He has not been arrested, and the bottom line is that’s the law: innocent until proven guilty.”

She also invoked the Duke lacrosse scandal and instances in which people have been falsely accused of rape to make her point about withholding judgment.

“If you’re the mother of a son who gets accused, you want to keep ‘innocent until proven guilty.’ Just ask the parents of the boys on the Duke lacrosse team,” she said. “Remember that? We raked them across the coals, burned them at the stake, took away every opportunity they had out of school. They were done. And it turns out, it wasn’t true.” She added, “and UVA,” referencing that school’s recent rape scandal.

She concluded by insisting she’s not defending rape.

“No one here thinks rape is good. … No one here … hates women or any of that. So don’t come after me like that because I’m sick of this bull,” she said. “Here’s the bottom line for me: It’s my opinion, and the American courts agree with me because he still has not been taken to trial or jailed on anything. So back off me!”

A recently unsealed deposition from Cosby, in which he admits getting drugs to give to women for sex, has led to mea culpas from many people who initially defended the comedian when the dozens of women who accused him of drugging and raping or sexually assaulting them began to garner widespread media attention in October 2014. But Goldberg, who has backed Cosby since the scandal first unfolded, remained cautious on Tuesday’s View.

“As more information comes out, people can make judgments. I don’t like snap judgments because I’ve had snap judgments made on me, so I’m very, very careful,” Goldberg said. “In America, you’re still innocent until proven guilty. He has not been proven.”