WASHINGTON — President Obama on Wednesday said bluntly that the actions described in accusations that the comedian Bill Cosby drugged women for sex would constitute nothing less than rape, and he said the country should have “no tolerance” for such actions.

In his first comments on the decades-old accusations against Mr. Cosby, the president sought to carefully avoid a direct comment on civil legal actions that have been lodged against the longtime comedian and television star by several women in recent years. And he dismissed the idea that he might revoke the Presidential Medal of Freedom conferred on Mr. Cosby by President George W. Bush in 2002.

“There’s no precedent for revoking a medal,” Mr. Obama said in answer to an off-topic question during a long news conference that was otherwise focused on the nuclear deal with Iran announced Tuesday. “We don’t have that mechanism.”

He added that he made it “a policy not to comment” on cases in which legal action was pending.

But after a noticeable pause, Mr. Obama did comment, if indirectly, suggesting that the facts involving one of the world’s best-known entertainers should not be taken lightly.