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At This Hour

Judge Overturns NFL Suspension of Tom Brady; Will Donald Trump RNC Pledge; Flaperon Confirmed from MH370. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired September 03, 2015 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:00] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello.

AT THIS HOUR with Berman and Bolduan starts now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm John Berman.

The breaking news AT THIS HOUR, Tom Brady still perfect. Four Super Bowl rings and now no four-game suspension. A federal judge just overturned the four-game suspension not 30 minutes ago. This is a huge blow to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. A huge relief to New England Patriots' fans ahead of next week's season opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Just to bring you up to speed, if you've been living under a rock for the last eight months, Tom Brady suspended for four games for having a general awareness somebody deflated footballs. But a federal judge said that punishment totally and completely out of order.

I want to bring in Rachel Nichols, CNN's sports anchor; also Paul Callan and with us from New England; Dale Arnold, of the New England Sports Network.

Rachel, let me read aloud to you a brief excerpt of this ruling from Judge Richard Berman -- no relation I assure you. "Based on the foregoing and applicable legal authorities the court hereby denies the motion to confirm the award and grants the Players Association motion to vacate the award" -- here is the key line -- "thereby vacating the four-game suspension of Tom Brady effective immediately."

Just a crushing blow to Roger Goodell and the NFL.

RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Here is another key sentence from that ruling. He said that he found "several significant legal deficiencies in the NFL's case." Remember, this whole section of Deflategate -- and, of course, it's hard to keep track because we are in our eighth month of this, the story keeps changing -- has been about process. Did the NFL follow the right process in adjudicating this with Tom Brady or did they railroad him as the NFL P.A. has said in did they make up evidence and change the goal line and keep moving it several times. The judge basically said, yes, they did. This was not about whether Tom Brady deflated footballs or not. This ruling today is saying, hey, the NFL way overstepped, according to the judge, the way they punished Tom Brady, whether he did it or not. They say that they violated the rules of the shop, as we talk about in these cases, by going after him for something they didn't warn him he could even be punished for.

BERMAN: That was exactly it. It wasn't whether Tom Brady knew they were deflating. But the fact he had never been warned of a four-game suspension, it was capricious and unfair and he was not allowed the legal right to argue it.

NICHOLS: Yes.

BERMAN: Roger Goodell is facing a lot of problems right now -- first of all, let's not get ahead of ourselves. The league is likely to do what here? They are likely to appeal this.

NICHOLS: They are likely to appeal this although the burden is now on them. They came into this section of the case with a huge legal advantage. A federal judge is reluctant to reverse an arbitrator's ruling. Now it's the NFL that is going uphill. They can appeal this but Tom Brady in all likelihood will get to play while this case is going on. And appeal cases usually take a long time. It could be six months to a year before it is actually decided on in the appeals court. It's now Tom Brady's game. The NFL has to be on the sidelines in this case and watch.

BERMAN: Paul Callan, you've had a chance to look through some of the ruling. People have been saying all along that courts like to give a lot of deference to collective bargaining agreements here. Part of the collective bargaining agreement with Commissioner Goodell does have the ability to issue punishments. However this ruling sort of says, and I'm no lawyer, but essentially says he can issue punishments as long as they're not bonkers, and this one, this finds, is essentially bonkers.

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST; I think a lot of lawyers will be surprised that the judge issued such a strong decision in Brady's favor here, because the courts do like to defer to arbitrators. It keeps a lot of disputes out of federal court and we have a whole system of arbitration set up. So when the courts look at an arbitration procedure, it's not like they're looking at a trial record of a judge. They really give a lot of deference to the arbitrator, but here when judge Berman looked at the record here, he essentially said this was so bad I'm going to have to set it aside. He said Brady got inadequate notice of the severity of the punishment that he was facing. Now, that's important because it might affect the way you handle and present evidence at the arbitration. He said Brady was denied the ability to examine key witnesses presenting evidence against him, and there was also a claim by the judge that he was denied -- Brady was denied the right to investigate properly the claims against him.

BERMAN: It just wasn't handled the right way the judge says.

CALLAN: No, it wasn't fair.

[11:05:08] BERMAN: In citing case law, the judge said, "The deference due an arbitrator does not extend so far as to require a district court to countenance much less confirm an award obtained without the requisite of fairness or due process."

Not enough due process here.

Dale Arnold joining us from New England.

Dale, my mother texted me about 12 seconds after this ruling came in. The subject of that text was "Tom Brady is free." I imagine there was a sigh of relief and a shout of joy emanating from the states of New England today.

DALE ARNOLD, RADIO SHOW HOST, NEW ENGLAND SPORTS NETWORK: Five and a half states. We figure from New Haven to the New York border are jets and giants fans. The other five and a half states are firmly in Tom Brady's corner. Most people thought the two words that ultimately would sing the National Football League were two words judge Berman has written in past decisions, those words are fundamental fairness, sorely lacking in this case. The inability to question, the inability to see the notes in the wells report. And where he says the deference due an arbitrator does not extend so far as to require a district court to countenance, much less confirm, an award obtained without the requisites of fairness or due process. That's where Roger Goodell failed here. That's where the owners of the National Football League are going to question him about his leadership.

BERMAN: All right. Dale Arnold, Rachel Nichols, Paul Callan --

NICHOLS: We'll see. This is going to be the neck game that's going to be played is whether the owners actually flip on Roger Goodell. Because let's make it clear, what we think in this room, what your mom thinks, what all the people in New England think doesn't matter.

(LAUGHTER)

BERMAN: Believe me, what my mom thinks absolutely does matter.

But I understand what you're saying.

NICHOLS: What matters is what the 32 owners think. We know Robert Kraft is in the "against" column. We can count one vote against. In past weeks, as this case has been going on by the way, as judge Berman has been ripping in the NFL, several other NFL owners have come out publicly to support Roger Goodell, specifically about this and about the way he handled this. Are they going to start reversing now? We'll have to see. Look, there's no doubt this was hugely embarrassing.

BERMAN: And again, in the next few minutes, we could hear from the NFL. We're waiting for that.

In the meantime, what we know is this, the four-game suspension thrown out and it looks like Tom Brady will play one week from now.

Paul Callan, Rachel Nichols and Dale Arnold, thank you so much. We have other big news. Coming up for us, a pledge of allegiance at

the Trump Tower. Just moments from now, the Republican front-runner -- who, by the way, had something to say about Tom Brady, I will get to that -- he will heat with the head of the Republican Party. Will Donald Trump sign a pledge to stay a Republican?

Then, she has defied the nation's highest court, and right now, the clerk who refused to issue a marriage license to a gay couple, she will face a judge who could decide her fate.

A lot going on. Stay with us.

Plus, they're families and they have no idea where they're going but they're trying to survive. We're learning more about the little boy found on a beach.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:11:42] BERMAN: So, will he sign it, will he crumple it up and toss it in the waste basket like a resume from "Celebrity Apprentice." In just a short time, Donald Trump will meet with RNC chief, Reince Priebus, about a party loyalty pledge. This is a pledge being sent to all the Republican candidates promising to support the nominee, whoever he or she may be, in 2016, and not to launch a third-party bid. But it's pretty safe to say, even though all candidates are being asked to sign it, it's really just about that one guy right there, all about Donald Trump.

CNN's chief political correspondent, Dana Bash, at Trump Tower in New York, where, at 1:30 today, the RNC comes, hat in hand, with a pledge saying, Donald Trump, please sign it.

A lot riding on this meeting, Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A lot is riding on this meeting, John, because sources familiar with this meeting and with Donald Trump's plans have been telling us since last night that he is planning to sign the pledge. That's the whole reason why Reince Priebus is leaving Washington, taking the shuttle up to New York City, having a meeting one-on-one with Donald Trump. However, you mentioned a meeting. That I am told is really critical because Donald Trump certainly I guess the best way to say it is known to be unpredictable, and I'm also warned that he also doesn't like to feel like he's backed into a corner. So unless the dynamics of this meeting go as planned and go well from the perspective of Donald Trump, this won't happen. But presuming that it does go along, the two of them are going to come down, they're going to have a press conversation and talk about it. Now, John, you have been covering politics for a long time, so have I. The reason why this seems odd is because it's never happened before. It's never happened that a party chair, the Republican Party chair, has asked all of the Republican candidates for president, which is really aimed at one, Donald Trump, to sign a pledge. But just like many other things in this election cycle when it comes to Donald Trump, things are not going as we usually expect. This is not a conventional election season whatsoever. You might ask why Donald Trump would even want to do this. I am told that the calls that are coming in the building behind me are overwhelmingly saying don't do it, don't sign the pledge, keep your options open to be an Independent. That's from his supporters. If he wants to expand beyond the supporters and get the party faithful who really want him to be a true Republican, this could help. But also on a more practical level, there are states, South Carolina is one, that it explicitly says that a Republican candidate can't be on the ballot for the primary unless he or she takes the pledge. So that's another reason -- John?

BERMAN: Dana Bash at Trump Tower, the center of the political universe for the afternoon. Reince Priebus headed there at 1:30 to meet with Donald Trump.

Thanks so much, Dana.

Dana mentioned the reason this is unusual is because it's never happened before. One other thing unusual about it, this whole pledge isn't enforceable. No one can make Donald Trump not run as a third- party candidate several months from now, even if he signs it today, so why the theater?

Let's talk about this with Mike Shields. He's the president of the Congressional Leadership Fund, former chief of staff at the RNC. Also joining us, CNN political commentator, S.E. Cupp.

Mike, you have some experience with the RNC. Does it look good for the party chairman to make a pilgrimage to Trump Tower to get Donald Trump to sign a document that they cannot force him to comply with?

[11:15:26] MIKE SHIELDS, PRESIDENT, CONGRESSIONAL LEADERSHIP FUND & FORMER RNC CHIEF OF STAFF: Well, yeah, first of all, I think it's a great victory for Reince. And I think Reince has gone out of his way -- he takes it very seriously to treat all of these presidential campaigns the same. So this pledge isn't just going to Donald Trump. I think this pledge will have been given to every single one of the 17 candidates that were on two stages in the last debate, and they will all be asked to sign it. As you know, the first question at the debate was will you run as an Independent or as a Republican. Donald Trump said he's a Republican. He's running in the Republican primary. He's taking part in the Republican debates. It's fitting that all the candidates would sign a pledge saying we're going to be a Republican and the pledge will say I will support the Republican nominee. And so for someone who has based his campaign on straight talk, this is a pledge to say I'm going to be a Republican and I'm going to support the Republican nominee and here is my word in writing for it. I think it's a pretty significant thing.

BERMAN: You know, it strikes me Donald Trump has changed his view on many positions, many very serious positions, so why wouldn't he change his position on this if it suits his needs?

S.E., am I wrong about that?

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, you're right, it's completely unenforceable and it's almost sort of a pr document. I love Reince. He's a fellow packer fan, but I actually think this was a big mistake. You know, the RNC's job is to protect the future of the Republican Party and Donald Trump has made it very clear he doesn't really care about the future of the Republican Party or any other party. His supporters, as Dana had mentioned, don't want him to run as a Republican, and so forcing him essentially to sign a marriage document, you know, a marriage contract to the Republican Party, I think it puts people like Jeb Bush in a really tough spot. Jeb Bush has been out on the campaign trail yelling at the top of his lungs that Donald Trump is not a Republican. He's not one of us. He's not like us. He's not conservative. And now essentially we have a document saying that Donald Trump is going to run as a Republican, he's joined the Republican Party. I think that's a really big gift to Democrats who are trying to paint the rest of the field with the Donald Trump brush.

BERMAN: Not only that, Mike, but this morning on "Good Morning, America," Jeb Bush was essentially forced to say if Donald Trump gets the nomination, he would support Donald Trump. Jeb Bush saying he will support Donald Trump, despite all the bad stuff Jeb is saying about him. It is interesting the Republican Party may be getting too much of what it's asking for, Donald Trump, its standard bearer.

SHIELDS: Yeah, I disagree with S.E. Reince Priebus is a strong chairman. He's a three-term chairman. We haven't had many of those in American politics. And --

(CROSSTALK)

CUPP: I love Reince. I agree with you, Mike --

(CROSSTALK)

SHIELDS: I know you love Reince, and, yeah, you're not saying anything bad about him. But what I'm trying to say is he's in a position of strength. There are things Reince can control and things he can't control. He said that himself. There's part of the process he can control and one of the things he can do is say, we're a Republican party, we're throwing Republican debates, having a Republican primary, and we want to make sure all of our candidates have said they're running as Republicans and they're going to support the Republican nominee. There are a lot of Republican activists around the country that will demand that of these candidates. If you can't say that, then you're taking part in a process but you're saying I'm not going to be a part of the process and that's a problem. It's pretty straightforward.

CUPP: I understand Reince's position. I think the specter of Nader and Ross Perot loom large over this election and I understand what he's trying to prevent. But I think, taking the RNC out of this, it would have been much better for the party and the other candidates had Trump gone as long as he could without vowing to be a Republican. Now you take away everyone else's argument that Donald Trump isn't conservative.

(CROSSTALK)

SHIELDS: Yeah, but I think a part of -- (CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: Guys, we're going to have to leave it there, and we're going to leave it there, reminding you all that, in addition to all of this, Donald Trump gets a news conference presumably with Reince Priebus this afternoon. CNN will cover it live.

Just to tie our first two stories together, Tom Brady and Donald Trump, let me read you a tweet Donald Trump sent about Tom Brady. He said, "I hope Tom Brady sues the hell out of the NFL for incompetence and defamation. They will drop the case against him and he will win."

S.E. Cupp, Mike Shields, great to have you with us.

CUPP: Thanks.

SHIELDS: Thanks.

BERMAN: Other news today. Dozens of officers scramble after a tip in the search for three suspected cop killers but the tipster was lying, making the whole thing up. Hear why.

Plus, we're now learning about the life of the little boy that washed ashore as families escape to survive. Hear about his life and where he was trying to go.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

[11:23:32] BERMAN: All right. We have breaking news coming from France this morning. The Paris prosecutor's office just confirming that the flaperon, the piece of debris that washed up on Reunion Island, that was off the coast of Madagascar, in July, that piece of debris they now confirm is part of MH370. The Paris prosecutor's office says "It is possible to say with certainty that the flaperon discovered corresponds to the one on MH370." That is the official statement. It's been going under a great deal of analysis now for more than a month. Official confirmation. The first time there is officially confirmation that this plane did go down in the Indian Ocean.

Joining me now, former FAA official -- transportation official, Mary Schiavo.

We expected this for a while because there was no other Boeing 777 that had missing parts or gone down in that part of the ocean, but this confirmation is still significant.

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: It's very significant for two reasons, among others. One is it's important for the families that they finally have someone, some official organization, giving them concrete information. That's what they have wanted all along, someone who will commit to information that they can rely upon. And also it's important for the investigation. It also gives them new incentive to go looking for other parts and other pieces that may be in the Reunion Island area or other areas so they can help narrow down and maybe perhaps aid the search for additional wreckage and those all important black boxes.

[11:25:08] BERMAN: That's an important point. They can keep on looking around there. Keep on with the undersea search in the general search area they have suspected now for more than a year.

Mary, it took a long time for them to reach this conclusion, to get the official confirmation. A lot of people thought it would come much more quickly given it was a fairly charge chunk of the aircraft. They thought there may be a number to directly correspond tom h-370. I get the sense there was some anxiety starting to bubble up.

SCHIAVO: Absolutely. I have worked other crashes with the French BEA was the investigative authority and they take a longer time than the United States national transportation safety board, for example, but the French tell us it's because they have a different standard because they treat air crashes as criminal investigations, and, of course, we and pretty much the rest of the world treat them as civil investigations and the French say they have to meet the criminal investigation standard, which is a little bit different. But I think when Boeing confirmed that they believed that's what it was, that was pretty good and good enough for most of the world, but this is important.

BERMAN: All right. Again, the Paris prosecutor's office now saying it is official, that piece of plane debris, the flaperon, did come, with certainty, they say, from MH370.

Mary Schiavo, thank you so much.

SCHIAVO: Thank you.

BERMAN: Other news, dozens of officers scramble after a tip in the hunt for three suspected cop killers. But it turns out, that tip was a fake. The tipster made the whole thing up. Hear why, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)