Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Kerry on Mission to Nail Down Support in Battle Against ISIS; Adrian Peterson Charged with Felony Child Abuse; Pressing Questions for the NFL; Hillary Clinton at the Iowa Steak Fry; James Foley's Mother Blasting U.S. Government; Pope Francis Says War is Madness

Aired September 13, 2014 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN ANCHOR: And, hello, everyone. I am Deborah Feyerick in for Fredricka Whitfield. And, here are some of the top stories we are following for you in the CNN NEWSROOM. America on a mission, trying to nail down support for the battle against ISIS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KERRY, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: The bottom line is that terrorists like ISIL have no place in the modern world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FEYERICK: Secretary of State John Kerry seeks support from critical allies in the Middle East. We are going to tell you if he got it, just ahead. And, another NFL player in hot water, Minnesota Vikings Running Back, Adrian Peterson charged with felony child abuse. Hear the accusations and the defense.

Plus, pressing questions about what the NFL knew about Ray Rice's violent fight with his wife in that elevator. Commissioner Roger Goodell claims the running back misled him. The growing seemingly endless controversy, coming up this hour.

(MUSICAL INTRODUCTION)

FEYERICK: And, first up, the battle against ISIS and the intense U.S. effort to build an international coalition to destroy the terror group. Today, Secretary of State John Kerry is in Egypt, a country he says can play an important role in fighting extremism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KERRY: We are very grateful that both Egypt and the Arab League have supported this coalition every step of the way. And, in each of the meetings that I had today, we discussed how we could better accelerate the efforts in bringing more nations on board and in dividing up the responsibilities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FEYERICK: And, we are covering this story from all angles. Elise Labott in Egypt and retired Colonel Rick Francona here in New York with us. Let us start first in Cairo. And, Elise, first of all, is anything tangible coming out of the talks that John Kerry is having? Is it troops? Is it money? Is it support? What is coming out of these talks?

ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now, no specifics, Deb. It is really kind of this general commitment that they are going to support the coalition. And, who is going to do what? There is, you know, talks behind the scenes.

And, clearly the U.S. has ideas of what it wants. But that is really going to be hammered out later next week in France, where Secretary Kerry will be attending a conference in Paris of coalition countries and then at the U.N. General Assembly, where it is going to top the agenda.

But, today here in Egypt, Secretary Kerry really looking for Egypt to take that role as the kind of heart and soul of the Arab world, and take that leadership role, not only in stopping the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq and Syria, but the financing of ISIS, which a lot of money goes through Egypt, which is really the lifeblood of ISIS.

And, what the U.S. Officials are telling us is that some of these foreign fighters that are travelling through Egypt into Iraq and Syria, are actually coaching some of the extremist groups in the Sinai, in Egypt, which is why the U.S. says, this is as much a threat to Egypt as to any other country in the region.

U.S. also looking for Egypt to get its religious clerics to speak out against ISIS. You know, in the mosques in Friday prayers and recently there was a very tough statement coming from the top religious cleric in Egypt, the Grand Mosque, condemning ISIS and the beheading of those American journalists. So, those are the kind of statements that the U.S. is looking for from Egypt and from other countries in the region, Deb.

FEYERICK: And, do any of these countries see their own survival at risk, if ISIS gains an even greater foothold? Because it would seem that if they do not buy into this, then, ultimately, their own governments could potentially be threatened.

LABOTT: Well, I think everyone clearly sees what the threat is. And, if you saw in Saudi Arabia, some of their borders had been threatened. Certainly, in countries like Jordan and Lebanon, ISIS is inching up to the borders there, and some of those border crossings have changed hands.

And, I think what the U.S. sees is a real wake-up call for the region. And, I do think that a lot of them see it as a threat. They do not want to kind of say that publicly, but I think it may not be that the Arab Nations participate with military strikes, some will offer over flight rights, basing.

But, mostly it is going to be intelligence. It is going to be stopping that flow of foreign fighters into Iraq and Syria, stopping the flow of financing, and the messaging aspect. The U.S. feels is very important. It wants Sunni Arabs to be speaking out, that this is not Islam, and as Secretary Kerry said, "ISIS is not Islamic and it is not a state, Deb.

FEYERICK: All right. Elise Labott for us there, thank you so much. We are going to be checking in with you a little later on. You are right there, got a front seat as well. And, also joining us, the former top commander of American troops in Afghanistan, weighing in on what is going on here, Obama's plan to take out ISIS. Retired Four- Star General Stanley McChrystal says that ISIS is a significant threat to Iraq.

We are joined by Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona. CNN's Erin Burnett last night did ask the General, Stanley McChrystal, what happens if President Obama's strategy to fight ISIS does not meet the goal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. STANLEY MCCHRYSTAL, FORMER U.S. COMMANDER: If you look back in history, typically, when a strategy identifies ends and you establish ways and means to achieve it, and what happens if suddenly the ways and means you identify do not achieve your ends?

ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: Right.

GEN. MCCHRYSTAL: Then you are in a position where you either change your objective, reduce it or change it, or you have to make that decision to cross the Rubicon and do something else. And, leaders in America and around the world have faced that over and over, and President Obama may face that as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FEYERICK: And, General McChrystal also told Erin that ISIS is vulnerable because now it has seized territory and it is got to hold on to it. It has to defend it. So, let us talk more about President Obama's plan for defeating is. Will the U.S. get enough support to make it work?

CNN Military Analyst, Retired Colonel Rick Francona is here. And, Rick, first of all, let us talk about this. The U.S. is building a coalition. But, still, even if they go in, even if they get a lot of different people who will buy into this, do not you need people on the ground to be able, not only when the U.S. strikes hit, that they are able to hold that ground? That is what we saw with the Persian -- the Kurds up in Northern Iraq with Mosul dam. So, the strikes worked, but then the Peshmerga came in and they held it.

LT. COL. RICK FRANCONA (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes. That is the missing piece here that we have not identified so far. We know what is going to happen in Iraq. We have templated this out. We have done it in Mosul. Mosul is a great example for how we could do the rest of Iraq. And, got to roll these guys up, and you know bottle them up, and then destroy them.

And, Iraq makes sense. That is easy to do. Not easy to do, but it is rational. You can see how that happens. Syria, on the other hand, presents a whole new complicated issue, because as you say, who is going to be on the ground there? Are we going to rely on the free Syrian army to do this? Well, they are not really in the position.

The free Syrian army is not really located in the area where ISIS is. So, somebody is going to have to go in there. Is it going to be other Arab countries? I do not see anybody willing to pony up any trips for that. No one has committed any troops yet. So, is it going to be American troops? Well, we pretty much ruled that out. So, who is it going to be? We have not identified that.

FEYERICK: Yes. And, it is interesting, because one of the reasons ISIS was allowed to get as big as it did is because there was so much discontent among Sunnis, especially in Iraq. Effectively, the Prime Minister at the time shut them out, isolated them, so the Sunnis began to fight with ISIS. Now, that there is a new prime minister, now that there is a new government in Iraq, do you think that ISIS will begin to lose some of its support, especially since its credit card is assassination, is beheadings, is brutality, is getting rid of Christianity, will those Sunnis maybe --

FRANCONA: That is the hope. And the President has been very clear. He says, we need an all-inclusive government in Iraq, and that will help break the hold that ISIS has over the western part of the country. Unfortunately, ISIS' hold right now is so strong in that area that I do not see that, that can happen without some military force being applied to ISIS, as we are doing with the air strikes and that.

When will the Sunnis have had enough? When will they tire of the radical theology that ISIS presents? We do not know when that is going to be? We do not know when that balance will tip. I am not sure that the government in Baghdad has addressed that issue yet. I do not think they present an alternative that the Sunnis are willing to sign up. There is still so much anti-Shiite feeling in this area --

FEYERICK: Hatred, is what it is.

FRANCONA: -- that ISIS is still strong.

FEYERICK: Yes. Let us talk about also the notion of boots on the ground. The President has said, no boots on the ground, but let us be clear. You know, effectively, we have got advisers who are there. They are there. That is boots. I do not know, am I wrong?

FRANCONA: No. You are correct. I mean there are boots on the ground. There will be more boots on the ground. And, I think that we do ourselves no favors by limiting ourselves by saying, there will be no boots on the ground. At some point, we may need to put boots on the ground.

If ISIS presents a real threat to the United States, if the administration believes that, then it is incumbent on us to address our own security. And, that means American boots on the ground. You cannot outsource your own security, which is what it sounds like we are trying to do.

FEYERICK: Right. And, as we have seen that over the course of the last decade. We are in. We are out. We are kind of in. We are kind of out. We are going back. So, we are going to have to watch that. All right, Rick Francona, we are going to be bringing you back, so do not go too far.

And, state troopers gunned down, ambushed at their barracks. And, the suspect or suspects are still at large. We are going to have more on the urgent manhunt underway in Pennsylvania.

Plus, one of the NFL's biggest stars, he has been booked on alleged child abuse; but, was it abuse or was it, in his words, a form of discipline? We are going to hear both sides, coming up straight away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FEYERICK: An urgent manhunt is underway in Pennsylvania for anyone who is involved in this ambushing of state troopers late last night. Police said that the suspect or suspects shot and killed one trooper and then injured another. It happened at the state police barracks in Blooming Grove, which is just East of Scranton, Pennsylvania. Well, officers from all over the northeast were on the hunt. Several people have been interviewed in the case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANK NOONAN, PENNSYLVANIA STATE POLICE COMMISSIONER: We are certainly seeking the cooperation of the people. We do not want to alarm people. We have so many law enforcement officers in the area right now. I am confident that we have the situation under control. But, that is where it is. We do not know much more about the assailant, so we cannot really say what the -- that the situation is completely in hand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FEYERICK: Yes. Not a lot of information that they are working on there. Police have not identified either of the troopers who were shot. They have not identified a motive, as well.

And, now to what may be one of the rockiest starts to a football season for the NFL. The league already dealing with an alleged domestic violence problem, involving some of its players. And, now, one of its biggest stars has been charged with child abuse. Alexandra Field explains.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And, Deb, Adrian Peterson left Minnesota overnight, making the trip to Texas to turn himself into authorities with a warrant out for his arrest. A grand jury indicted Peterson. Peterson's attorney explains that the charges related to Peterson using a switch to spank his son.

The attorney put out a statement, defending Peterson, saying that this was a form of discipline. He says, quote, "Adrian is a loving father who used his judgment as a parent to discipline his son. He used the same kind of discipline with his child that he experienced as a child, growing up in East Texas." That statement goes on to say that it is important to remember that

Adrian never intended to harm his son and deeply regrets the unintentional injury. That attorney also points out that Adrian Peterson has been cooperating with authorities, who have been leading this investigation.

As for the Vikings, they have also immediately responded to this. They put out their own statement, saying they are in the process of gathering information, regarding the legal situation, involving Adrian Peterson. The Vikings are set to square off against the Patriots in Minnesota on Sunday. Right now, Adrian Peterson has been deactivated. He will not be able to play in that game.

We have not heard from Peterson, himself, although he did put out a tweet on his Twitter account, just hours before the news broke. Part of that tweet saying, a quote that says, "God has you covered. Do not stress or worry." For now, that is the most that we are hearing from Peterson; but, again, his attorney is saying that he will continue to cooperate with investigators. Deb?

FEYERICK: Thanks, Alexandra. Well, was this child abuse or as Peterson's lawyers claim, was it simply a form of discipline? Our legal experts are going to weigh in on that and what the law says, just ahead.

And, also coming up in the CNN NEWSROOM, she was there in 2007 and Hillary Clinton is returning to the Iowa Steak Fry. You cannot run for President and not stop by this big democratic event. So, is she trying to tell us something?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FEYERICK: She is not officially a candidate, but she is doing everything a White House hopeful should do. And, that includes an appearance this weekend at a key event in a critical state for any democrat, who is running for President. Hillary Clinton is returning to Iowa. Here is CNN's Brianna Keilar.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hillary Clinton has been the inevitable candidate before.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON: I know. But, this time we are going to fix it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Nowadays, she is laughing along with the joke. At a Friday service for Poet Maya Angelou.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELIOT MATTHEW JONES, MAYA ANGELOU'S GRANDSON: Next, I would like to thank the amazing speakers and some dignitaries. First and foremost, Madame Pres -- excuse me.

CROWD: APPLAUDING.

(LAUGHING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: This weekend, Clinton returns to Iowa for the first time since her stunning defeat to Barack Obama and John Edwards in the 2008 caucuses.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: We are going to get up tomorrow and keep pushing as hard as we can.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: The Harkin Steak Fry, hosted by the state's long-time democratic Senator, is a must on the checklist for any democrat with Presidential aspirations. But for Clinton, Iowa is the state that hobbled her White House ambitions right out of the gate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: She is as commanding a front runner as we have had in the modern primary system. But there are a lot of democrats who do not want her to take it for granted. And, Iowa, certainly, from 2008, is a reminder of the risk if you do seem to think thanks for granted. So, I think she has to begin to show democrats that this is not something that she is expecting to be handed to her. That she is going to work for it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Clinton last spoke at the Steak Fry in 2007, along with the rest of the democratic Presidential field.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: And, what we are doing today is building a new field of dreams for the country we love.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: This time, she is headlining with her husband, paying homage to Harkin at his final Steak Fry after three decades in the senate. Clinton will likely buck up Bruise Braley, the democrat locked in a tight race, to replace Harkin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: It is so great being back here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Clinton began her reintroduction to public life this summer in a book tour with many stumbles. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: We came out of the White House, not only dead broke, but in debt.

KEILAR: The missteps provoked observations that Clinton's political skills are still rusty, but a new CNN/ORC poll has her going into Iowa with a huge lead among registered democrats.

FEYERICK: And, our thanks to CNN's Brianna Keilar for that report. We will be covering the Harkin Steak Fry tomorrow. Hillary Clinton is expected to speak after 3:00 p.m. Eastern and we are going to be bringing that to you live.

And, the White House says we are at war with ISIS. Pope Francis says war is madness. He also had some strong words this morning. We are going to tell you what he said while visiting a war memorial. That is coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FEYERICK: Right now, the U.S. is building support for its campaign to destroy the ISIS terror group, and here is what we know. Today, Secretary of State John Kerry is in Egypt. He held talks with the country's President and Secretary General of the Arab League. Afterwards, Kerry said that it is increasingly clear that the, quote, "Message of hate," unquote, is being rejected.

And, the family of a British man held hostage by ISIS has now issued a plea to his captors to contact them. David Haines' life was threatened by ISIS in a recent video. The aide worker was abducted last year. Contrast now with the parents with executed American Journalist, James Foley.

Foley's execution is a key reason the U.S. is now preparing to go after the terror group. But, his mother, Diane Foley, is blasting the U.S. government for how it treated her and her family, as they tried in vain to free her son from captivity. She sat down with Anderson Cooper for this exclusive interview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DIANE FOLEY, JAMES FOLEY'S MOTHER: We were told we could not raise ransom, that it was illegal. We might be prosecuted.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: You were told you would actually be prosecuted.

FOLEY: Yes, that was a real possibility, told that many times. We were told that our government would not exchange prisoners, would not do a military action. So, we were just told to trust that he would be freed somehow, miraculous. And, he was not, was he? We Americans failed him. I -- it is nobody's fault. It is just the fault of a lack of discussion around it and understanding.

(END VIDEO CLIP) FEYERICK: And, despite that criticism, National Security Adviser Susan Rice praised Diane Foley and defended the government's efforts to free the U.S. journalist.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUSAN RICE, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: She is an extraordinary woman. She did an amazing job on behalf of her family and with her husband and other children, to do everything possible, leave no stone unturned, to try to bring Jim home safely. We are all heartbroken that that was not possible. But, I and others in the U.S. government work very hard with Diane Foley and her family, to try to be supportive, to try to provide what information we could.

And, of course, as you know, the President ordered a very daring and very well-executed rescue operation, when, on the only occasion we had what we thought was fresh and we hoped actionable intelligence about the whereabouts of Jim Foley and the other hostages. Unfortunately, they were no longer there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FEYERICK: And, Diane Foley also told Anderson Cooper that she is embarrassed about how the government handled her son's plight and that freeing James did not seem to be in the United States', quote, "Strategic interests," unquote.

And, some very strong words from Pope Francis this morning. He said that war is madness and he hinted it World War III as the U.S. built a coalition to fight the brutal terror group, ISIS. He made these remarks while paying homage to Poland soldiers at the Italian World War I Memorial near the Italian-Austrian border.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POPE FRANCIS, POPE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH: War ruins everything, even the bonds between brothers. War is irrational. It is only plan is to bring destruction. It seeks to grow by destroying.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FEYERICK: And CNN Senior Vatican Analyst, John Allen, joins me now from Denver. And, John, Popes have always given speeches against war. What do you think makes this Pope is message any difference?

JOHN ALLEN, CNN SENIOR VATICAN ANALYST: Well, Deborah, I do not think there is anything original in the message. I mean as you indicated, this kind of denunciation of world, and then the Pope Francis also denounced what he called the plotters of terrorism. All of that has been said since time in memorial by Pope.

I think what is unique about Francis is what he does to try to back that up, because he is willing to roll the dice on some fairly bold initiatives. A year ago, when the western powers were contemplating going to war in Syria, he called the 1.2 billion Catholics of the world to a special day of prayer and fasting to try to stop that and of course he was largely successful.

Last June, he brought the Presidents of Israel and Palestine for an unprecedented peace prayer in the Vatican gardens. Now, that was not successful in stopping the conflict in Gaza, but Francis has said, he believes it has opened the door that he wants to try to walk through. And, we now know this week, he is planning to travel to Turkey in late November. A trip that he hopes will take him as close as he can possibly get to the Iraq border, to try to meet with refugees from ISIS.

And, that might be a chance for him to launch another initiative, such as, and this has been talked about, inviting Muslim leaders to sit down with him to talk about how together they might be able to combat religious extremism. So, Deborah, I think the unique element with Francis is not what he says, it is what he does.

FEYERICK: Yes. It is so interesting, because he is going to Turkey. He is going to hopefully meet with some of the people. But, in the end, you have got all these disparate heads of these factions in Syria, some also in Iraq. How does he reach out to them personally? Because you can reach out to the people, but can the people really change the message of what is going on with ISIS?

ALLEN: Well, I think, first of all, Francis -- I mean one of the distinctive touches of his diplomatic style is his personal engagement. And, I think what you may well see him do is try to reach out to the so-called moderate voices, that is the mainstream leaders of Islam in the Middle East and other parts of the world, to try to come together with him personally, to see what they might be able to do with the project different message.

But, on the other hand, I think we also should say that Pope Francis' message about ISIS is somewhat unique, and that for the last quarter century, the Vatican has been kind of instinctively hostile to virtually every Western, and in particular, every American use of force in the Middle East. They opposed the two Gulf wars. They opposed the war in Afghanistan and so on.

But, in this particular case, Francis has also said that it is morally legitimate to try to stop an unjust aggressor, which is a kind of indirect yellow light for these American strikes. So, I think you are going to see Francis moving on two levels. One is, trying to do something long-term to change the game, but in the short-term, I think also acknowledging that the use of force in this case may be the best of the bad options we have got.

FEYERICK: Right. All right, pretty forceful there. John Allen, thanks so much. Interesting as always that he is calling it morally legitimate to stop an aggressor. All right, John, thanks.

And, we are going to be switching gears back to the NFL next. The NFL and it's commissioner in legal jeopardy because of the handling of the Ray Rice videotape. Our legal experts are going to be weighing in on all of that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) FEYERICK: NFL Star Adrian Peterson is free on $15,000 bail today after turning himself in on a felony charge of child abuse. Peterson is accused of using a switch to discipline his son. But his lawyers says he did so, quote, "Much like he experienced as a child growing up in East Texas. He called it a whooping." Well, let us bring in our legal team.

Criminal Defense Attorney Tanya Miller in for Avery Friedman, and Richard Herman, a New York Criminal Defense Attorney and law professor. And Richard, I want to start with you. Not everyone who sees this story views it necessarily as abuse. They say, look, my dad whooped me. I whooped the kid. Is that the kind of defense that actually even holds up in court?

RICHARD HERMAN, NEW YORK CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Deb, that does not hold up anywhere. The fact that his daddy did it to him and his daddy is daddy did it to him, and Rusty Harden, his attorney, who is a slob guy, he is running around saying, he did not intend -- he did not intend what?

He took a willow branch. He stripped the leaves off the willow branch. He stuffed the leaves in the 4-year-old is mouth. He made the 4-year-old strip. He bent him over, and he whipped him. He lashed him 15 to 20 times. He is 6'1", almost 200 pounds of solid muscle, probably bench presses 400 pounds. He did not intend what?

He beat the crap out of this kid? He is going to be convicted. He went to the grand jury without immunity. He testified. He admitted the crime. He will be a convicted felon. The NFL should strip him for the rest of this year. He needs electroshock therapy and maybe more. I do not know. It is a very bad situation here.

FEYERICK: Yes, but it is interesting, Tanya, when you look at this. Clearly -- clearly, no hitting is really allowed anymore. You know, no matter what anybody grew up with. There is a line between child abuse and discipline. But, it is interesting the way he handled it. He went directly to the authorities. He did not try to cover it up. He is basically standing in there saying, "This is what I did." Let me tell you my side of the story, which is very different from what Ray Rice did. How do you see this?

TANYA MILLER, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, you know, I mean I do not know that he had much of a choice. He had already tweeted or e- mailed or texted the child's mother and told the child's mother what he did, essentially, admitting that he believed he went too far. He even described, you know, I think -- I really feel bad about the hit to his genital areas. I think that one was really painful. I feel bad about that.

So, I do not know that he had much of a choice but to go to the authorities and to try to get in front of this thing and get his version of this thing out first. I do not think that, that is going to help him in this case in part, because we can see the photographs. We can see the injuries to the baby. I cannot say -- you know, my co- guest said it perfectly. There is not much more really to say about it. This is a 4-year-old baby. You do not leave marks like that. You do

not break the skin of a 4-year-old, allegedly because he wanted his brother to let him play the video game. I mean, you have got to have a better way of dealing with a 4-year-old than doing that and to stuff leaves in his mouth. That was just cruel. And, I think it is clearly has crossed the line from discipline to child abuse.

FEYERICK: There is no question about it. The one question I have is, look, you know, the NFL really gives these guys so much fame, so quickly, especially the star players. Do they have any kind of parenting classes? Do they have any kind of marriage classes? Do they have anything that enables these athletes to be able to deal with not only the stresses of the game, but also, really, the stresses of their life? Because if a guy cannot control a 4-year-old, except by hitting him, like, where is the disconnect there?

HERMAN: Yes. It is very, it is very hard for a single parent to raise a child and it is just very, very difficult, but he is out of control. It was summer vacation and he really -- he annihilated this young child. What crime did this 4-year-old commit, where he deserved to be beaten 15 to 20 times, in the whooping room, where daddy has a lot of belts, and he likes to use the belts.

And, I thought daddy might punch me in the mouth if I tell anybody about this. I mean, Adrian Peterson, it is not discipline. Rusty Harden, the world, it is not discipline. He is out of control. He beat the crap out of the kid. He cannot have visitation without supervision in the future. The NFL has a minimum six-month suspension for crimes like this -- Minimum.

And, when it involves a child, it can be more. It should be more. He should be thrown out for this year, and you know, if it is my client in the Bronx, New York, who does something like this, he is in prison right now. He is not walking around free. He is in prison right now.

FEYERICK: Yes. No question. All right, Tanya and Richard, we will be coming back right after a quick break. Stay with us. We have a lot more to talk about. The NFL, its commissioner, are they in legal jeopardy because of how they did handle the Ray Rice incident? We are going to get Tanya and Richard's take on that when we come back right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FEYERICK: Well, the chorus of voices criticizing NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, that chorus getting much, much louder. The latest comes from former Steelers Player, James Harrison. He was fined by Goodell during his playing days. On Twitter, he wrote, "OK @NFLcomish Roger Goodell. So, let us just say you did not know. If that is negligence, what fine, suspension, penalty would you make up for that?"

Goodell says he did not know Ray Rice hit his wife during an argument in Atlantic City. However, several reports say Rice -- Rice, himself, told Goodell in a private meeting in June. The AP is reporting that the videotape of Rice hitting his now-wife has -- was sent to the NFL five months ago. Andy Scholes looks at the controversy surrounding the NFL commissioner.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Here is the running back. The Baltimore Ravens taking the field for the first time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE SPEAKER: And it is a touchdown!

(END VIDEO CLIP)