Larry Wilmore on Bill Cosby: “Did He Do It? Yes.”

Larry Wilmore is starting strong out of the blocks on his first week as host of the new Nightly Show. Last night, the second episode of the post-Daily Show program took on the allegations against Bill Cosby.

“We’re answering the question, ‘Did he do it?’ The answer will be yes,” said Wilmore at the opening of the show. “There’s a statute of limitations on the charges but there’s not a statute of limitations on my opinion. I’m telling you the motherfucker did it.”

Wilmore also referenced Lena Dunham’s interview with Time Out New York, where she referenced the Holocaust. (She later apologized.) Besides the Holocaust, Dunham also criticized other famous people for giving Cosby the benefit of the doubt. (“Everyone else has gone, ‘Let’s hope it’s not true,’” she said. “Chris Rock, who’s an incredible guy and who has a strong sense of social justice, has basically said, ‘We’ll see.’”) Wilmore’s intro was almost to be an answer to that criticism — he certainly came out directly.

Less interesting was the panel segment, where Jamilah Lemieux, Kathleen Madigan, Baratunde Thurston and Philly’s own Keith Robinson debated the Cosby allegations. (It was no Tough Crowd, I can tell you!) Robinson didn’t really defend Cosby, but said he figured some of the women were lying. He also added, “I just think we’re going too hard on Cosby. We’re already acting like we know that he did it.”

“I understand that people are innocent until proven guilty in the court of law. However this is the court of public opinion and this is my show. And that [bleeped-out word] did it,” Wilmore said. “The proof is common sense for Christ’s sake. We don’t have to turn off our brains because ‘the law’ says we’re not supposed to make assumptions.”

The full episode, via Hulu, is below.