WASHINGTON — In his first appearance on the Democratic primary debate stage, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was asked to contend with an issue that is dogging his campaign: allegations he made crude remarks about women.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren used her opening remarks to attack Bloomberg over the accusations, which include what he has referred to as “bawdy” jokes. She and former Vice President Joe Biden called for him to release women from nondisclosure agreements, which may be signed in connection with settlements of claims and prohibit both parties from discussing certain information.
“I’d like to talk about who we’re running against,” Warren said. “A billionaire who calls women ‘fat broads’ and ‘horse-faced lesbians,’ and no, I’m not talking about Donald Trump. I’m talking about Mayor Bloomberg.”
Scrutiny of the billionaire’s past comments surfaced as Bloomberg’s poll numbers have risen ahead of Super Tuesday on March 3, the first time he will appear on a primary state ballot. Bloomberg has pointed to his company’s employment of women as a response to the allegations, a defense he repeated during Wednesday’s debate.
But the allegations are still not going over well with fellow Democrats.
“This is a time where voters are looking for a president who can lead us out of the days when it was just commonplace, or accepted to have these kinds of sexist and discriminatory attitudes,” former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg said on Fox News about the Bloomberg claims.
It’s an issue Democrats hoped would hurt Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, when Trump was accused of making sexist or derogatory comments toward a number of women. Most notably, an “Access Hollywood” recording of him talking about groping women prodded Trump to make an apology.
“Obviously, there is no comparison to this president and the way that he has treated and talked about women and people of color and continues to do so to this day. But we, in our party, hold ourselves to the highest standard,” Buttigieg said.
Atima Omara, a political strategist and member of the Democratic National Committee, said the claims against Bloomberg may be off-putting to many voters.
“I think those stories are disqualifying for a lot of people,” she said. “However, there’s a swath of people who are voting for, and are interested in, the candidate who can be strong, and will they overlook it is the larger question.”
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Allegations center stage
Reporting by ABC News, The Washington Post and other outlets reveals a history of allegations of sexism, pregnancy discrimination and a hostile work environment in Bloomberg’s company, Bloomberg LP. Nondisclosure agreements reportedly prevent some former employees from speaking out today, though the number of them and their contents is unknown. Bloomberg says he intends to uphold the agreements.
ABC reported that numerous former employees have filed lawsuits against him or Bloomberg LP. The outlet also reported it had spoken to “several” women who feared telling their stories publicly.
One, who did not sign an NDA but requested anonymity from ABC, told the outlet she was “sidelined” for her pregnancy. “Going to work was uncomfortable, everything was awful at that time,” she said. “It was the worst thing that has ever happened to me.”
Another allegation spanning back to the 1990s was made by a former employee in a lawsuit. Sekiko Sakai claimed Bloomberg told her to “kill it” when she informed him she was pregnant. He has denied this claim.
News outlets have obtained a long-rumored booklet that was allegedly given to Bloomberg as a gift in 1990 at an office party called “The Portable Bloomberg: The Wit and Wisdom of Michael Bloomberg.” It contains a number of sexist quotes he supposedly said, and sexually explicit remarks about women to musings on business practices. The Post published it in full, though readers should be advised it contains explicit language that may be disturbing.
“I know for a fact that any self-respecting woman who walks past a construction site and doesn’t get a whistle will turn around and walk past again and again until she does get one,” Bloomberg allegedly said decades ago, according to a quote found in the booklet.
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A Bloomberg spokesperson denied to the Post the things in the booklet were said, though when asked about it throughout the years Bloomberg and his representatives have given varying responses from acknowledging he may have said some of the comments to an apology for any offense taken, the Post reported.
For his part, Bloomberg has previously acknowledged making “bawdy” jokes in his past, but maintains he has fostered an atmosphere of equal opportunity. He was asked by a moderator Wednesday about hostile work environment claims, and about whether Democrats should expect more from their nominee.
“I have no tolerance for the kind of behavior that the MeToo movement has exposed,” Bloomberg responded.
“In my foundation, the person that runs it’s a woman, 70% of the people there are women,” he said at the Nevada debate. “In my company, lots and lots of women have big responsibilities. They get paid exactly the same as men. And in my—in City Hall, the person, the top person, my deputy mayor was a woman, and 40% of our commissioners were women.”
That didn’t do it for Warren: “I hope you heard what his defense was: ‘I’ve been nice to some women.'”
‘Words matter’: Bloomberg comments on trans people resurface
Bloomberg also came under fire by LGBTQ activists for recently resurfaced footage of him seeming to refer to transgender women as “some guy wearing a dress.”
In comments first reported by BuzzFeed News from a speaking event in 2019, Bloomberg said that to people in the middle of the country, “if your conversation during a presidential election is about some guy wearing a dress and whether he, she or it can go to the locker room with their daughter, that’s not a winning formula for most people.”
That echoes remarks he made in 2016 that also recently resurfaced that had many in the LGBTQ community wondering if this is how he truly thinks about transgender individuals.
“If you want to know if somebody is a good salesman, give him the job of going to the Midwest and picking a town and selling to that town the concept that some man wearing a dress should be in a locker room with their daughter,” he said.
LGBTQ advocacy group the Human Rights Campaign President Alphonso David said in a statement that “words matter,” and Bloomberg should apologize for the language he used in reference to transgender people, which he said “demoralizes and dehumanizes” them.
“We expect all pro-equality candidates, including Mayor Bloomberg, to create policy solutions to end the epidemic of violence our community faces, not use the same talking points our opponents use to dehumanize transgender people and justify their own hateful beliefs,” David said.
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Omara said that the electorate today is focused on fighting for the rights of women and LGBTQ Americans, that may be turned off of Bloomberg for remarks like these.
“I think what he said… was rather transphobic, and reflects a lack of understanding,” she said. “He has to be prepared to address it seriously and not brush it under the rug.”
Can Bloomberg be the Democratic nominee against Trump?
Warren made her point clear during Wednesday’s debate: The Democratic Party cannot afford to “just substitute one arrogant billionaire for another.” This is about electability, she said.
“We are not going to beat Donald Trump with a man who has who knows how many nondisclosure agreements and the drip, drip, drip of stories of women saying they have been harassed and discriminated against,” she said.
Kellyanne Conway, a senior adviser to Trump, said on Fox News over the weekend that Bloomberg’s reported remarks are “far worse” than things Trump has said.
And while both Buttigieg and Omara have said Trump and his team have no ground to stand on when it comes to criticizing others for sexism, Omara says Bloomberg “has to answer for” the claims against him.
“The one thing that Trump did was when the tape came out, and then all these other women’s allegations, at first he did some sort of apology that clearly looked forced,” Omara said. “And then all these women came forward and he just attacked the women, their appearance.”
Omara said Bloomberg will need to “make the case to the electorate that he’s no longer that man.” He didn’t do that at the debate, she said.
She said “he wasn’t prepared to discuss this in a serious way because he doesn’t consider the issues that have been raised a serious matter.
“And for those who care about these issues, it will hurt Bloomberg at the primary ballot box.”
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