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Judge Overturns Tom Brady's Suspension; Bush-Trump Spar over Speaking Spanish. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired September 3, 2015 - 10:30   ET

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


[10:29:41] COY WIRE, CNN SPORT: He certainly did. But the thing for the Judge the entire time was that the NFL kept coming back and saying, look, this was the power that we had to -- you know, they gave us the authority to be able to rule in cases like this. And the one thing that really stood out to me, as you mentioned, a big case built up against Tom Brady. And so it is fully expected that the NFL will appeal this situation, and they will likely file for a judge, another judge, to stay the decision.

In other words, put Tom Brady back on until this thing goes through the appeals process. So the NFL most certainly will appeal this decision because, again, they know that their power moving forward with any case to come after this hinges on this decision. It's determined by this decision.

So they're definitely going to fight this and go back and use all of those notes and all of that -- the allegations and the evidence that you mentioned from the destroying of the cell phone and that sort of evidence that they have found.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: So this is going to go on and on, but even though Roger Goodell and the NFL will appeal this ruling, that doesn't mean Tom Brady will be prevented from playing because the appeals process could go on a long time, until the end of the season for all we know.

WIRE: Yes. In a similar case, Pat Williams, a player for the Vikings. He was suspended, but then he sought a stay of that suspension while it went through the appeals process. Well, he continued to play for multiple years while his case was sorted out in the court system. He ended up retiring before that case was ever even settled.

So even if this thing does, you know, have a stay placed on the suspension and an appeal process happens, I mean it's going to be likely that Tom Brady gets to play this full season if not more before anything were to come of it.

COSTELLO: Do we have Jamal Anderson on the phone as well?

JAMAL ANDERSON, CNN SPORTS: Yes, I'm here. How are you doing?

COSTELLO: Hi, Jamal, thanks for being with me. Your reaction to this nullification by the judge. Anderson: I'm not completely surprised, and, you know, and the

judge's comments initially prior to this decision this morning, it seemed like there was a sticking point in particular with the NFL's comparison with Tom Brady's alleged offense here in Deflategate with comparing it to guys who had not passed a certain test for substance abuse and things of that nature and suspensions that were based on guys doing other things of that nature.

So clearly Judge Berman had a problem with the NFL's comparison with Tom Brady being suspended for that many games versus these other offenses, and that seemed to be a sticking point. When those comments came out, people who were really following this case believed at that time that that may be something that the judge was going to bring up when it came time to give a final decision if there wasn't some sort of settlement between the NFL and Brady.

Because remember multiple times these groups got into a room together and could not agree on what a proper settlement would be. The NFL's sticking point, if you remember, was Tom Brady admitting some guilt, admitting that he was part of this, he was culpable. And Tom Brady continued to say he had nothing to do with this. There was no evidence he had anything to do with this. And now here we are with this decision where they nullify the suspension of Tom Brady and he's back on the football field.

COSTELLO: Ok. So here is the thing. Roger Goodell insisted that he should be the arbitrator. Perhaps that wasn't the wisest of moves by the NFL commissioner -- Jamal.

ANDERSON: No. And we've seen this now -- we've seen this now several times. There's been this whole thing and really since what transpired with the New Orleans Saints, a separate situation. People have been upset about the commissioner basically being judge, jury, and if you will, executioner. He's been the final guy.

In fact when Tagliabue was brought in, the former commissioner, to come in on something, he overturned what Roger Goodell was doing. So there's this wave now where it's A, Roger Goodell is the only person who's seeing these things. There should be somebody else. There should be another arbitrator. There should be somebody else making a final decision with respect to it being just one person.

COSTELLO: Interesting. Jamal Anderson, Coy Wire, thanks to you both. I appreciate it.

I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:38:40] COSTELLO: All right.

More on our breaking news this morning. Tom Brady wins. A judge has nullified the NFL's four-game suspension of Tom Brady over the Deflategate scandal. The ruling coming down after more than one month of failed settlement talks between the league and the players' union. This means Brady can suit up for the Patriots' first game next week against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Joining me now with more on the decision is CNN Sports anchor, Andy Scholes and also Chris Draft, a former player with the Atlanta Falcons. Why did the judge rule in favor of Tom Brady -- Andy?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS: Well, Carol, this entire time Judge Richard Berman -- sorry, I'm hearing myself in my ear -- this entire time Judge Richard Berman had been saying, you know, he had a very hard time with the language that was in the Ted Wells' report. That Tom Brady was generally aware that footballs were being deflated and of all times for the NFL to draw a line in the sand and really go after someone, this is just a disaster for them.

The judge, Richard Berman, he was attacking them. Every time that they were being questioned in court, Tom Brady, you know, they compared this to a steroid suspension, a four-game suspension for steroids. And Judge Richard Berman asked the NFL, so you're telling me that if a teammate was generally aware that one of his other teammates was taking steroids, they could get a four-game suspension? And obviously that was not going to hold up.

[10:40:03] So Brady wins this. He's going to be able to play in week one. His only risk now, Carol, is that the NFL can appeal to the Second Circuit Court. And if that for some reason is heard during the NFL season and they overturn this decision by Richard Berman, Brady could end up serving that suspension sometime down the line during the season maybe when the Patriots are making a push for the playoffs. So that would be his only risk here.

But as we've heard, you know, these things take a long time. The legal experts I talked to said the Second Circuit Court rarely gets to cases like these within six months. So Tom Brady likely is in the clear for the 2015 season. And we probably won't even get any kind of resolution to this until the off-season at the earliest.

COSTELLO: OK. So let's go to Rachel Nichols because she's been following this long national nightmare. Are you surprised --

RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN SPORTS: We've been following it.

COSTELLO: Are you surprised by the ruling though -- Rachel?

NICHOLS: I'm not surprised because the judge did question the NFL very effectively in court exposing a lot of holes in its case. That being said, the NFL went into this court case with a huge legal advantage. Federal court judges as a rule try not to disturb what arbitrators have decided in arbitration cases. That means the judge here ruled that what Roger Goodell did was so glaring and illegal, he had no choice but to step in.

This is a huge win for the players' association, a huge win obviously for Tom Brady who gets to play this week, and really a problem for the NFL because they can appeal as Andy talked about, but this is a public relations nightmare now. Did they overstep here going for the home run against Tom Brady and instead they end up with nothing. COSTELLO: That's just insane. So I want to bring in Chris

Draft. He's a former player for the Atlanta Falcons. How do you think the players feel about Roger Goodell at this moment in time?

CHRIS DRAFT, FORMER ATLANTA FALCONS PLAYER: I think you have to still look at the history of the New England Patriots and with their other Super Bowl victories, there's been this cloud. Spygate -- there's something else, now it's Deflategate. A message had to be sent, and it had to be sent strong. And I think when you're talking about did he overstep his bounds, did the NFL overstepped their bounds, they really wanted to make it clear to the rest of the players that, hey, that there's been questions where the Patriots have been concerned, and we have to do something about it.

It definitely -- based on the fact of the ruling today, it says for some of the players over there saying, well, I think the Patriots maybe got away with it again. Other players are saying that if there's not enough evidence, then that's right. Roger shouldn't be able to step over the line and say that it's a four-game suspense.

But I think it's clear the NFL wanted to make at least big statement that says we have got to protect the integrity of the game.

COSTELLO: Yes. But here is the thing, Rachel. I want to center on Roger Goodell for just a moment because, you know during the whole Ray Rice controversy, he didn't exactly handle that with aplomb -- right. And now this. Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots came out and slammed Goodell.

NICHOLS: Very strongly.

COSTELLO: So you've got to think that he's on shaky ground at this moment.

NICHOLS: Well, I want to make a distinction between whether he looks bad or not and whether he's on shaky ground because there are hundreds of millions of people in this country who may or may not have an opinion about Roger Goodell. There are 32 people in this country whose opinion about Roger Goodell matters -- the NFL owners.

Now, we obviously know what Robert Kraft thinks so take away one from the Roger Goodell column. But many, many -- more than a dozen other owners have come out in recent weeks specifically in support of Roger Goodell. The Houston owner came out just two days ago against Tom Brady and in support of Roger Goodell.

Now, none of these owners are going to be happy that they lost this court case. This is embarrassing. The league clearly has egg on its face. And many of them -- even those who supported him -- may turn around and blame Roger Goodell now.

But really we have to remember when having these discussions, what the rest of us think, no matter how much bad press he gets, it doesn't matter. It doesn't indicate that he's on the verge of being fired. There are only 32 people whose opinion matters. We know one of them is not happy, but right now the other 31, none of them have come out against Roger Goodell.

So until we see a little bit more of a crack in that group, there's no way we could sit here and say Roger Goodell is in trouble. We can say Roger Goodell doesn't look good right now to the American public.

And I do think that that trust issue that you bring up from the Ray Rice situation last year is now going to continue now that we've seen all of this unfold.

COSTELLO: Absolutely. Chris Draft, Rachel Nichols, Andy Scholes -- thanks to all of you. I appreciate it.

[10:44:39] I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Jeb Bush returning to the key state of New Hampshire today. These are live pictures from the city of Hampton where Bush is holding a town hall meeting. Moments ago Bush took a tour of a local manufacturing facility, and we've been listening, and, no, he has not spoken word of Spanish.

As you know, this town hall comes as his war of words with Donald Trump shows no signs of slowing down. Trump taking issue with Bush speaking Spanish while out on the campaign trail. His message to the former Florida governor, "Set the example. Speak English while you're in the United States."

For his part, Jeb Bush is fighting back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS ANCHOR: What was your first thought when you heard him criticize you for speaking Spanish?

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I laughed. I mean, this is a joke. I was in a press gaggle where people asked me a question in Spanish and I answered it in Spanish. Part of it is you laugh because it's so bizarre, but it's hurtful for a lot of people, and Mr. Trump knows this. He's appealing to people's angst and their fears rather than their higher hopes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[10:50:08] COSTELLO: And this latest battle Trump/Bush battle is not going unnoticed by other GOP contenders. In an interview with CNN, Carly Fiorina weighed in on her rivals and the language debate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARLY FIORINA (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think Donald Trump and Jeb Bush are going at it as front-runners are going to do in a presidential campaign. I mean recall just over the last couple days Martin O'Malley protesting at the DNC meeting because he wants a chance to go at Hillary Clinton. I mean, I think this is what politics is about.

I also think, look, I admire the fact that Jeb Bush is multilingual. I admire the fact that so many people are multilingual and I also think English is the official language of the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So let's talk about this. Jason Johnson is a professor of political science and contributor to Sirius XM radio and Ben Ferguson is a conservative talk show host and CNN political commentator.

BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Morning.

COSTELLO: All right. I'll start with you, Ben. Why are we arguing over whether or not you can speak Spanish on the campaign trail?

FERGUSON: It brings up the bigger issue Donald Trump has been trying to make and that is, you know, as a country we've become too politically correct and afraid to recognize when there are issues. I think his bigger point is we have become too accommodating to people coming into this country that are not trying to be a part of this country.

Now, at the same time, you look at Jeb Bush and what he said. Jeb Bush has got a very good point that he's making here. Someone asked me a question in Spanish. I'm bilingual. I'll be honest with you, I wish I was bilingual. I think it's a huge asset in an international world economy. I think if you have a wife especially that speaks Spanish and for him to learn a second language, which is not exactly easy to do, and you have kids that are bilingual, you should celebrate that.

So there are two sides here that are going to go to battle over this. One that says we can be a big melting pot and how dare you say that I can't speak Spanish. The other side is going to say, you know what? We've been too accommodating to illegal immigrants. We've made it too easy for people to come here and not become a part of America. And that's going to be down on Trump's side (ph) on this. I think all the way until either he says he wins this thing or he gets out.

COSTELLO: Well, but, Jason, Carly Fiorina is jumping in on this. She says she believes English is the official language which I'm not sure they ever voted English as our official language in this country. Maybe I'm wrong though.

JASON JOHNSON, SIRIUS XM: There is no official language and this is just look -- on the one hand it's good for Jeb Bush because he needs to punch up because basically Donald Trump has knocked him down to fourth or fifth place in Iowa right now. Trump is appealing to the constituency that he has that for racial and political reasons associates everything with illegal immigrants coming in from Mexico.

The practical issue to me is this. There are lots of native Spanish speakers who are American citizens. And so it makes sense for Jeb Bush to use whatever language it is he can to communicate with voters. And whether that's Spanish, whether that's sign language, whether that's Russian, or German, it doesn't matter, you have to learn how communicate with potential voters.

So they're both right for whoever it is they're trying to win with.

COSTELLO: Let's face it, Ben, you can't win an election with just white people voting for you these days, right?

FERGUSON: Well, of course. But I think Donald Trump thinks I'm going to get people that are sick and tired of the average politician and, honestly, look at it so far. It's worked unbelievably well.

And so his mantra is really I'm going to be non-PC on every issue. ?And if you're speaking Spanish, I'm sorry. That's wrong. You're making -- you know, you're not helping people become a part of our society if you do that. And they're going to say that's what I want. I wants blunt, straight talk. I don't want any of the BS the politicians come up with. I don't want (INAUDIBLE).

So at least -- I'll say this -- he's being very true to who he is so far with this campaign. People are not going to like me, some aren't, but I'm going to be real and blunt and hopefully I can make up the difference for those people that come out as first time voters.

COSTELLO: Well, I'll tell you one group that's not liking Donald Trump. According to a "Washington Post"/ABC News poll 82 percent of Hispanics have an unfavorable view of Donald Trump. I just wanted to throw that out there. I want to get to the --

FERGUSON: He may say, you know what, I'm an 82 percent negative, let's go all in and this will be the next (INAUDIBLE) to do it.

JOHNSON: He'll lose, yes.

COSTELLO: Make it an even 100.

OK. Just a quick point about this pledge that the RNC wants all of the Republican candidates to sign pledging they will not run as a third party. I actually think that's -- I don't know. I think it's wrong. You should be able to run as anything you want to in the United States -- Jason.

JOHNSON: Yes. I think it's really cowardly on the part of the RNC to require this of people. And I also think it's silly all the other Republicans -- you have Chris Christie and Rand Paul saying I'm going to sign the pledge, too. They're pledging not to run as a third-party candidate. That's like me saying I'm not going to declare for the NBA draft. It wouldn't matter. I'm not going to be in the draft anyway.

The only person this was really built for was Donald Trump. And I think it reflects the fact that the RNC doesn't trust the rest of the field and they're terrified of a Trump third-party campaign. And I think that's anti-American.

[10:55:09] COSTELLO: All right.

FERGUSON: It's not anti-American.

(CROSSTALK)

JOHNSON: It is. It's anti-American, anti-Democratic. You should let anybody run who wants to run. If the RNC knew what they were doing, they wouldn't have to worry about Donald Trump.

COSTELLO: OK. I have to leave it there. Ben Ferguson, Jason Johnson -- thanks so much.

I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: All right. You're looking at live pictures out of Kentucky. This is a federal courthouse there where soon a municipal court clerk, Kim Davis, will appear before a judge. As you know, Kim Davis is refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses, and a judge could find her in contempt of court and order her to do this. We are waiting that hearing to take place in just about ten seconds or so.

[11:00:01] Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello.

"AT THIS HOUR" with Berman and Bolduan starts now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: All right. I'm John Berman.

The breaking news --

[10:29:41] COY WIRE, CNN SPORT: He certainly did. But the thing for the Judge the entire time was that the NFL kept coming back and saying, look, this was the power that we had to -- you know, they gave us the authority to be able to rule in cases like th>