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Vice President Joe Biden said Tuesday the Baltimore Ravens did the “right thing” and had no choice but to cut running back Ray Rice from the team after video surfaced of him punching his then-fiance earlier this year.
“Whether it was for the right reason, spontaneous enough or not, they had no choice,” Biden told the “Today” show. “Now you can argue they should have done it sooner — they didn’t want it. Whatever the reason is, it’s happening.”
{mosads}The Ravens terminated Rice’s contract Monday after previously handing down only a two-game suspension. The National Football League also suspended him indefinitely.
Biden said domestic violence is never the woman’s fault.
“This whole culture, for so long, has put the onus on the woman,” he said. “What where you wearing? What did you say? What did you do to provoke? That is never the appropriate question.”
White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Monday night that President Obama finds domestic violence “unacceptable in a civilized society.”
Later Tuesday, Biden is slated to deliver remarks and host a reception to honor the 20th anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act.
During the interview, Biden said the phrase “domestic violence” does not capture the “most vicious form of violence there is, because not only the physical scars that are left, the psychological scars that are left.”