Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) said she was “furious” over how the National Football League handled the employment of now-former Baltimore Ravens player Ray Rice after surveillance footage surfaced of him allegedly punching his then-fiancée.
“They handled it so poorly, Andrea, I’m so furious about this. There were no facts. He admitted to beating his wife. We saw the video of him dragging her out of an elevator. There was nothing left to be discussed,” Gillibrand told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Wednesday.
The comments come two days after the NFL indefinitely suspended Rice and the Ravens announced that Rice’s contract with the team had been terminated. A month ago the NFL admitted that it had mishandled the situation and also announced a tougher policy for domestic violence and sexual assaults.
“He should have been fired right there and then. Our NFL players are role models to our kids. And what are we saying about whether we value women today? I think it was outrageous. It’s not surprising,” Gillibrand continued. “This institutional support of the star player, we see that same dynamic on college campuses.”
Gillibrand spearheaded a military sexual assault bill that fell just a few votes short of beating a filibuster in her chamber.
“We see the same dynamic in the military where that star soldier needs to be protected. He couldn’t have possibly raped that young woman,” Gillibrand said. “It is problematic when the decision makers are institutions who have bias, who want to protect their own and don’t want to see justice done. And it really goes to this larger message of do we value our women and girls? And, unfortunately, we only value them 77 cents on the dollar. And that’s not good enough. And that’s why the book’s a call to action.”
