New footage of Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice knocking his fiancee out cold in an elevator was released this morning by TMZ. The video shows Rice leveling Janay Palmer, and then casually dragging her limp body out of the elevator.
Responding to the video, Fox host Brian Kilmeade on Monday blasted the victims of domestic violence, criticizing Palmer (now Janay Rice) and other women who don’t break up with their partner after a domestic violence incident, saying they send a “terrible message.”
Kilmeade then proceeded to provide mocking advice to Palmer, quipping, “I think the message is, take the stairs.” Co-host Steve Doocey gamely joined in, “The message is, when you’re in an elevator, there’s a camera.”
The Ravens also placed the blame on Palmer when the incident first came to light in May, tweeting, “Janay Rice says she deeply regrets the role that she played the night of the incident.” Today, the Ravens released Ray Rice and, more than 100 days later, deleted the tweet.
Update:
Fox News contributor Ben Carson offered a straight-forward defense of Ray Rice, saying people should stop “demonizing” him. He also implied that Janay Rice was partially responsible for the attack, saying “they both need some help.”
Update:
On ESPN, Keith Olbermann takes a different approach and calls on NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to resign:
Update:
Fox and Friends addressed the comments for 13 seconds on Tuesday’s show: “Comments that were made during this story made some feel like we are taking the situation too lightly. We are not, we were not. Domestic violence is a very serious issue to us, I can assure you.”