To see some change. I was among those that stood up for these boys. I watched one do 13 years and come out and work for us for three years. Im glad to see them get compensated. But no one can give you 13 years back. No one can give them the time back. We must continue to do better. Thanks for watching. Im al sharpton, hardball starts right now. Devastating. Lets play hardball. Good evening, im Chris Matthews in washington. Here in an elevator, we see a man beating a woman to unconsciousness. We see him drag her limp body across the elevator floor. For this he was fired today from his job. Fired not because of the beating he gave this woman, but because you and i just got to see it. These are the facts of the
national Football League today. Beat up a woman and you get a twogame suspension. Have the pictures get out and suddenly the league takes action. Because of this, this is a fact brought brutally to light in this picture, its our top story tonight. Also, president obama will try this week to sell his diminishing number of supporters on war in iraq and syria. Can he do it . Can he get antiwar democrats to bring drones attacks, air strikes and special forces to destroy the Islamic State . Two other stories, a juror in the mcdonald verdict condemns all politicians and Debra Norville joins us on what it was like to speak at yesterdays funeral for joan rivers. Back to the big news tonight. Baltimore ravens running back ray price was fired today and suspended indefinitely by the national Football League after this mornings release of this video punching his fiance, now his wife, and dragging her unconscious out of an atlantic
city elevator. The ravens announced the termination of his fiveyear, 35 Million Contract shortly after 2 00 p. M. Today. That was this afternoon. Rice was charged with felony assault back in march, but his wife refused to testify. This case became notorious when rice got a slap on the wrist, a twogame suspension from the Baltimore Ravens and the nfl. They cared more about rice playing on the field than they did about his violent behavior off it. It took getting this gruesome footage out there today to pressure a professional Football Team to take serious action against a serious crime. Senator Richard Blumenthal is a democrat from connecticut who called for a tougher punishment before rice before what happened today. And Michelle Bernard is president of the center for women and public policy. Center blumenthal, as a former attorney general of your state, give us your sense of what criminality looks like. This picture looks like a serious crime to me. Looks like a serious crime. Its an assault. Domestic violence. And youre absolutely right that the punishment was in no way adequate. I protested and complained about it. And it took this gruesome footage to reach this result. Shouldnt have been necessary. But it also shows how inadequate, how sadly deficient the nfls new policy is. Roger goodell has lacked the leadership to move directly to a lifetime suspension, if there is this kind of assault. If there had been even the new policy, probably a sixgame suspension would have been all that would have been without this gruesome video. Michelle, your thoughts . Im stunned on watching the video over and over again. I keep wondering how anyone in the nfl could have watched that video and not known to throw him off of that team immediately. I have to believe they saw it before. We have a serious problem in the country in that people do not take Domestic Violence seriously. We have a congress that earlier in the year did not want to vote
on the violence against women act. Theres this belief that it doesnt happen. We have evidence here when we look at this video that there are still people who pummel their wives and others who think that theres absolutely nothing wrong with it. Well, the calibrations of Domestic Violence. That was a heavyweight knockout punch of your girlfriend, of your fiance, punching her like youre in a boxing match with everything youve got. And shes prone on the floor, unconscious there. Senator, you know the law. What is that . Its worse than assault and battery . What would you call that in a regular criminal case . If somebody saw a stranger on an elevator and did that, what would that be . Thats definitely aggravated assault. It could come close to an attempt at even more serious damage. But as pernicious and insidious as that assault is the fact that janay was then stage managed to
apologize for complaining. That is really the antithesis of what is required in these situations. Blaming the victim, having her apologetic and then the ravens tweeted it as exonerating rice himself. So this kind of syndrome, the cycle of violence, blaming the victim, and as far as the law is concerned, that would have landed rice in prison in my view. I would have prosecuted as an aggravated assault. The Ravens Organization and Head Coach John Harbaugh stood by their running back in may when rice held this press conference to apologize. I just want to first off apologize to, you know, steve barbady, Ozzie Newsome and coach harbaugh, and also want to apologize to my fans. I really treat my job as a very special job. And i failed miserably. But i couldnt call myself a failure. Because im working my way back up. I do deeply regret the role that i played in the incident that night. But i can say that i am happy that we continue to work through it together. Jamal, what do you make of the two people there testifying . Shes saying basically everythings fine. Yeah, i mean, i think it speaks to the level of ignorance, how tone deaf the nfl, the Baltimore Ravens, how they were with this entire issue. Anybody who i would like to think has just a cursory knowledge of the complicated dynamics of Domestic Violence, would understand the optics of having the woman who was victimized standing next to her batterer and apologizing for her role. I mean, what was her role, that her face hit his fist . That was her role in that and certainly that has been supported by the video. And so i think you had a collection of willful ignorance
by the ravens, by the nfl, that have led to this Public Relations blowup and nightmare. And thats why its difficult for me today, to give the ravens any sort of credit for terminating ray rices contract, when this was clearly a situation they didnt understand from the very beginning. Michelle, do you think this was the use by this professional organization, the ravens, to take this syndrome were somewhat familiar with, where the female spouse has been beaten up by the husband or boyfriend, and for whatever combination of psychological or economic reasons, decides to let it go, and they use that here and put her out there and basically apologizing for being part of that syndrome and shes a victim of it. By doing that, theyre revictimizing her. October 1 begins Domestic ViolenceAwareness Month in this country. If we look at what happened to her, the fellow in south africa, the olympian who was accused of Domestic Violence and killing
his girlfriend, seen it with chris brown, even locally, there was a woman who went to a judge to get a temporary restraining order, the judge pooh poohed it and the husband throws oil on her and lights her up and almost burns her to death. Its a very serious issue. When you put women in the position of apologizing for something that allegedly led someone to batter them, youre revictimizing them. Its a horrible thing. Its very sad this video has become public, but on the other hand, maybe it will allow people to actually begin to start taking it seriously. He could have killed her. Thats a lot more than assault and battery. If she had suffered a brain injury. If she had died, he would have been guilty of murder and what would the ravens have had on their hands . Senator, what is the legal aspect . Is there legislative action you can take in regard to this case and cases like it . Im certainly considering what legislative action there should be. Because what we need in this instance is not blaming the
victim and stagemanaging and apology from her, but emphasizing the courage and strength that women who are victims of Domestic Violence, survivors of this brutal crime, need to come forward and break with their past. Ive worked on this issue for a couple of decades now as a attorney general and now as a senator. And the skirge, the ep semic, the cycle of Domestic Violence which is repeated because young men see or experience it in their own lives, requires role models from these athletes that is exactly the opposite of what we saw with rice. And exactly the opposite of what we saw from the ravens and the nfl. So whether we can do it legislatively, whether we can seek more aggravated penalties at the state or federal level, my hope is that this incident will lead to changes in practices and much stronger penalties from the nfl. Great to have you. Senator, thanks so much for coming. Michelle bernard, i think youll be back later in the show. And jamal hill, thank you for your reporting. And thanks to tmz for having us know about this stuff. Sometimes without the tape, you dont believe it until you see it. Coming up, we elected president obama to end wars. Can he now sell antiwar americans on his battle plan against isis . Can he take us to war with the antiwar crowd . And well meet a jury in the mcdonald corruption trial that delivered that verdict against the former governor and his wife. Plus, if 80 of life is about showing up, look who showed up to say goodbye to joan rivers. Debra norville is going to join us. She was inside, she spoke at the funeral. Thats all coming late in the show. Finally, let me finish with quid pro quo politics, getting something personally for what you give a politician. This is hardball, a place for politics. [ male announcer ] ours was the first modern airliner,
revolutionary by every standard. And that became our passion. To always build something better, airplanes that fly cleaner and farther on less fuel. That redefine comfort and connect the world like never before. After all, you cant turn dreams into airplanes unless your passion for innovation is nonstop. We have new nbc news. Polling in three key senate races. Check the scoreboard. First to arkansas, tom cotton leads mark pryor by five points among likely voters. Its cotton, 45, pryor, 40. In kentucky, Mitch Mcconnell is up 8 over democrat alison grimes. Final to colorado, udal leads gardner by 6, 4842. So arkansas and kentucky, both red states are favoring republicans. While colorado, trending blue is right now going for the democrat. People are going home politically. And well be right back. When folks think about what they get from alaska, they think salmon and energy. But the energy bp produces up here creates Something Else as well jobs all over america. Engineering and innovation jobs. Advanced Safety Systems technology. Shipping and manufacturing. Across the United States, bp supports more than a quarter million jobs. When we set up operation in one part of the country, people in other parts go to work. Thats not a coincidence. Its one more part of our commitment to america. Welcome back to hardball. On wednesday night of this week, president obama will address the country about the threat from isis and how were going to destroy it. Yesterday on meet the press
the president spoke clearly about eliminating the threat posed by the radical terrorist group which has overtaken regions of iraq and syria and has publicly deheaded two americans. Heres the president yesterday. Keep in mind, this is something that we know how to do. Weve been dealing with terrorist threats for quite some time. This is not going to be an announcement about u. S. Ground troops. This is not the equivalent of the iraq war. What this is, is similar to the kinds of Counterterrorism Campaigns that weve been engaging in consistently over the last five, six, seven years. Well, that Counterterrorism Campaign could involve the deployment of special forces, more drone strikes, more air strikes, or arming and straining the Free Syrian Army. The question is, can the president sell this war . What will his supporters, his opponents, and the overall public do here . A new cnn orc pole out today should give the president a
sense of where the public stands. 45 see isis as a very serious threat to the u. S. 76 want more air strikes. 62 favor military aid to isis enemies. And 61 oppose u. S. Clrds on the ground. The democrat from washington gentlemen, let me start with mr. Mcdermott, would you support the use of special ops forces in the area of syria going after isis . Id have to be convinced by the president. Right now, you have senator kerry and senators hagel, negotiating with the saudis and with the jordanians. If we dont have support from some of our arrab allies going on the ground, i dont think we should get into it. If we say were going to do it all from the air and drop a few special forces here and there,
its not going to work. Its going to take more than that, and we have to have allies support us. I wouldnt support just americans alone in this event. Do you think its plausible that the saudis or jorr jordanians or the emirates would send fighting units into the field . Do you think thats even plausible . If it isnt, then its not possible to win this. Because you cannot win it from the air and win it by dropping in a hundred or 200 or 300 or even 3 or 4,000 of our special forces. Youre not going to win it that way. We should have learned that over the last 11 years. The president is faced with a pandoras box, that george bush took the lid off of and youre not going to get the lid back on with a few special forces and drone strikes. I agree with you completely. Congressman, on that same question, the president says no boots on the ground. But special forces are boots on
the ground. They may not be marching in parade fashion like in a trenchwarfare situation, or marching across europe to get hitler, but you put men on the ground there, special ops units, they could be captured. They will be killed. Do you think we should be doing that . I think jim is basically right. Youve got to have an overall coalition. Thats why i think the president has taken his time. Some were criticizing him, thinking that he should act in a kneejerk way. No, hes not doing that. Hes trying to make sure we have our allies on board. Its going to be a coalition of allies who also have things at stake, like those oot kurds and like those in in iraq and turkey and saudi arabia. They need to be all part of this. Now, you do these things, i think, in a coordinated manner. So if there happens to be one or two leaders that we know how to get the way that he coolly and calmly got osama bin laden, then you may do that. But overall, you have to make
sure that the Free Syrian Army maybe is the one, we got to know who we are arming and training, that we have those kinds of troops on the ground to do the ground work. But you coordinate it all, so that you can make sure you cut off the leadership as well as get the people on the ground, but do it with other sunni muslims and other allied states, countries. So that we can make sure theres a company hencive approach to geth this done. Let me go back to you with the same question i put to mr. Mcdermott. Would you support a resolution to put special forces into syria to fight isis . Would you do that . Again, if the president lays out his case and talks about that we are having this overall coalition and that theres going to be roles that each of us play, you know, as he did even when we went into libya. He said what the specific role that the United States would play and he told the truth. And thats whats important. The president telling us the truth as to what his plans are
and why hes doing what hes doing. It makes me think its going to be a fraternity frank and were the only ones doing it. The president drawn on his opposition to the iraq war. Hes been withdrawing troops and hes won the nobel peace prize. But now hes repositioning his presidency, after killing bin laden, wanting to strike syria, he will address the country about a prolonged conflict against isis. Yesterday the president warned about the dangers facing america if nothing is done. Lets listen. I want everybody to understand that we have not seen any immediate intelligence about threats to the homeland from isil. Thats not what this is about. What its about is an organization, that if allowed to control significant amounts of territory, to amass more resources, more arms, to attract more foreign fighters, including from areas like europe, who
have europeans who have visas and can travel to the United States unimpeded. That over time that can be a serious threat to the homeland. Let me go to mr. Mcdermott. Im uncomfortable with the phrase homeland. It strikes me as totalitarian. It suggests something strange to me. Like who else are we defending except america . Why dont you just say america . As if were facing some existential armageddon threat from these people. Do you buy the phrase homeland . I never heard it growing up, never heard it in my adulthood. Its a new word. Why are we using it . Is there some other place were defending . What are we talking about when we say homeland . Its the language of the neyo cons to get us further into wars. Your thoughts, though, not mine. From my point of view, its more of the war mongering that george bush used to get us in in
it the favorite place. We started out hearing about weapons of mass destruction. That was untrue. Absolutely untrue. And he knew it. But he took us into this war and then was about getting osama bin laden, and after that, it was a democracy, and after that, it was the awakening of the people out in the Anbar Province and they have been shifting, but its all about war mongering, trying to make people at home afraid. Because they thiknow t