PHILADELPHIA _ Bill Cosby said Tuesday he won't testify in his own defense at his sex assault trial in Norristown, Pa., next month because it would expose him to cross-examination.
"I just don't want to sit there and have to figure out what I believe is a truthful answer as to whether or not I'm opening a can of something that my lawyers are scrambling," he said in an interview with Sirius XM radio host Michael Smerconish.
Just a week before jury selection is set to begin in Pittsburgh for his trial, Cosby sat for the nearly 30-minute interview.
Cosby, 79, declined to discuss the allegations against him in detail. But, in his often long and rambling responses to Smerconish's questions, the entertainer said he feels that the charges against him could be racially motivated and that so many women came forward accusing him of sexual assault as a "piling on" to sway public opinion against him. He called the allegations "the attack at me," and said he hopes to be acquitted and return to performing.
"I know the side that I'm on and the side that I'm hoping for," Cosby said. "And after that there's more work to be done."
The interview was Cosby's first broadcast interview in more than two years. He also gave an interview for a Black Press USA article last month. As dozens of women came forward in recent years with allegations of sexual misconduct against him and he was charged with indecent aggravated assault of Andrea Constand, he had remained silent.
"I decided I think it's time for me to do something," Cosby told Smerconish, who also writes a weekly column for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Cosby is scheduled to face trial June 5 on a charge of aggravated indecent assault for allegedly drugging and molesting Constand, the former operations director for Temple University's women's basketball program, in his Cheltenham home in 2004. Jurors selected in Pittsburgh will be sequestered in Montgomery County during the trial.
Cosby insisted that he is not aiming his interview _ and recent statements released by his daughters _ to sway potential jurors.
Statements from two of Cosby's daughters, Ensa and Erinn, first aired Monday on "The Breakfast Club," a morning show on a New York radio station that is syndicated across the country.
"I believe that racism has played a big role in all aspects of this scandal. ... My father has been publicly lynched by the media," Ensa Cosby said.
Asked by Smerconish about that comment, Cosby signaled that he agreed.
"Could be, could be. I can't say anything but there are certain things that I look at and apply to the situation," he said. "There are so many tentacles, so many different _ nefarious is a great word _ and I just truly believe that some of it may very well be that."
Cosby remained upbeat throughout the interview, often joking and chuckling in response to Smerconish's questions. He grew heated only when Smerconish asked whether he believed all of his accusers were lying.
"You know better than that," he admonished the radio host. "I won't and I cannot answer that. It's really not fair and you know that, because all I have to do is say something similar to that and the next thing I know the postman is carrying a big bag (and) they're saying 'Defamation, defamation, defamation.'"
The segment also featured clips from an earlier interview with Cosby _ conducted by his daughter Erinn and distributed to multiple radio stations this week. In them, Cosby reminisced in measured tones about his upbringing in Philadelphia and time playing sports in Fairmount Park as a youth with a makeshift football, made up of crumpled newspapers and rubber bands, time playing football with his friends in Fairmount Park.
"I always talk about Philadelphia," he told Smerconish. "It is in my records, it was in my monologues. It's important to me because that's the connection, Philadelphia, growing up in Philadelphia, being with people that are now named Fat Albert."
He spoke wistfully of the hits his career has taken in the wake of the scandal including the withdrawal of network deals and decisions by several colleges and universities to rescind previously granted honorary degrees.
"I'd like to be remembered for being the guy that they made give back all the things they rescinded," he said. "I'd like to get those things back because the people who decided to make that decision then saw they'd made a mistake."
