Democratic U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar slammed the NFL's investigation of former Baltimore Ravens player Ray Rice's domestic abuse case.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said he never saw the elevator video of Ray Rice striking his then-fiancee until Monday morning when TMZ.com posted video of Rice punching his then-fiancée during an altercation at an Atlantic City hotel in February.
Klobuchar, a former prosecutor, wonders if Goodell and his staff tried to "get all the evidence."
"What I was most shocked by in the case was that the NFL didn't try to get all the evidence, because you really want to," Klobuchar said at an event hosted by the National Journal.
"You just can't close your eyes and try not to see the evidence. You do everything you can to see the evidence so that you can make the best decision … They didn't appear to me to be making that attempt."
Goodell said he and his staff saw the first video in February, the one in which Rice is seen dragging his Janay Palmer-Rice's body out of the elevator.
The league tried to obtain more footage from law enforcement agencies, but was rebuffed, Goodell said.
A spokesman for the New Jersey state attorney general told ABC News it would have been "illegal" to provide the tape to the NFL.
In late July, Goodell handed down his first punishment against Rice, a two-game suspension. Several weeks later, amid a torrent of criticism, he announced a new domestic violence policy for the league: a first offense would receive a six-game suspension, and a second offense, an indefinite suspension of at least a year.
The Ravens terminated Rice's contract Monday afternoon, hours after TMZ released the footage. Later that day, Goodell announced he has indefinitely suspended Rice based on the new video evidence.
"I think it's good, obviously, that he was terminated from the team," Klobuchar said.
