Mike Bloomberg’s longtime girlfriend Diana Taylor suggested voters shouldn’t be bothered by her partner’s company using NDAs to muzzle female former employees.
‘It was 30 years ago, get over it,’ Taylor told CBS News at a ‘Women for Mike’ event Monday night in Texas.
Taylor said that Bloomberg was never ‘accused of doing something or saying something nasty to a woman.’
‘That is not who he is,’ she said. ‘Life has changed,’ Taylor added. ‘I grew up in that world. It was a bro culture. We have come a very, very long way and Michael Bloomberg has been at the forefront of that change.’
After Elizabeth Warren went after Bloomberg on the Las Vegas debate stage over his company’s use of NDAs, the 2020 hopeful announced Friday that his company would let three female former employees out of their gag agreements should they want to make public their stories about working for him.
Diana Taylor, the longtime partner of 2020 hopeful Mike Bloomberg, said people should ‘get over it’ that her boyfriend used NDAs at his company. ‘It was 30 years ago,’ she told CBS News Monday night in Texas
‘We have come a very, very long way and Michael Bloomberg has been at the forefront of that change,’ Diana Taylor told CBS News at a ‘Women for Mike’ event Monday night in Houston Texas, as Bloomberg goes after votes in ‘Super Tuesday’ states
At the event, Diana Taylor said her boyfriend Mike Bloomberg was never ‘accused of doing something or saying something nasty to a woman.’ Elizabeth Warren claimed on the debate stage that Bloomberg had called a woman a ‘horse-faced lesbian’
Mike Bloomberg participated in his first Democratic debate last week in Las Vegas, and got hammered over comments he made about women in the past and his company’s use of non-disclosure agreements. He’ll return to the debate stage Tuesday night
‘Bloomberg LP has identified 3 NDAs signed over the past 30+ years with women to address complaints about comments they said I had made,’ the 2020 hopeful tweeted. ‘If any of them want to be released from their NDAs, they should contact the company and they’ll be given a release.’
Going forward, he also announced that his company would no longer use silencing agreements when there are accusations of sexual harassment or misconduct.
‘I recognize that NDAs, particularly when they are used in the context of sexual harassment and sexual assault, promote a culture of silence in the workplace and contribute to a culture of women not feeling safe or supported,’ Bloomberg said. ‘It is imperative that when problems occur, workplaces not only address the specific incidents, but the culture and practices that led to those incidents. And then leaders must act.’
Bloomberg’s flip-flop on letting ex-employees out of these contracts came after new polling showed his favorability rating dropped a net 20 points after Wednesday night’s debate, according to a survey from Morning Consult.
Elizabeth Warren put Michael Bloomberg (pictured) on blast during Wednesday night’s Democratic debate in Las Vegas, which was the first time the former New York city mayor stood alongside his primary rivals
On Friday afternoon, Mike Bloomberg announced that he’d let three women who previously worked for him out of NDAs – he also said silencing agreements would no longer be used when sexual harassment or misconduct was at issue
On the debate stage, Elizabeth Warren (right) tore into Mike Bloomberg (left) over refusing to let employees out of non-disclosure agreements
Elizabeth Warren appeared at a CNN town hall Thursday night and brought along a release she penned for women and men who had previously worked for Mike Bloomberg and were under non-disclosure agreements he’s refusing to wave
Elizabeth Warren (left) shared the document with CNN’s Erin Burnett (right) explaining she had used her experience as a contact law professor to draw it up
Elizabeth Warren penned a release for Mike Bloomberg to use with ex-employees who are currently under non-disclosure agreements. Warren shared it on Twitter and talked about it at a CNN town hall Thursday night
Bloomberg was taken on by Elizabeth Warren on the Las Vegas debate stage for keeping these contracts intact.
She continued to keep the narrative in the news by appearing at a CNN town hall Thursday night with a document in hand, putting her skills as a contract law professor to use.
‘And I thought I would make this easy,’ Warren told CNN’s Erin Burnett. ‘I wrote up a release and a covenant not to sue. And all that Mayor Bloomberg has to do is download it – I’ll text it – sign it. And then the women, or men, will be free to speak and tell their own stories,’ Warren added, as the audience laughed.
Then, ever playing the Harvard Law professor, Warren read the relevant parts:
‘Bloomberg and the company release any and all obligations contained in any agreement, including but not limited to, any employment settlement, severance, or non-disclosure agreement between Bloomberg and/or the company and any other person to the extent those obligations preclude the other person from disclosing information relating to sexual harassment, discrimination, or other misconduct at the company or by Bloomberg himself,’ she said. ‘Under this release, it is now the other person’s choice to disclose such information or not.’
Mike Bloomberg said his company looked back 30 years and found three non-disclosure agreements that had been signed by female employees over things Bloomberg himself had said. On Friday he announced that those women could be released from their NDAs
On Thursday, Mike Bloomberg appeared at a campaign event in Salt Lake City, Utah and joked about his poor debate performance.
On Friday, Bloomberg did not release a copy of the language that the three women could sign should they choose to be released from those contracts.
‘I think that the mayor should sign this and that we all have a right to see,’ Warren said of her version.
On Wednesday, as soon as Warren got onstage with the billionaire – who was making his Democratic debate debut – she attacked him for names he had previously called women.
‘I’d like to talk about who we’re running against, 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,’ Warren said Wednesday night.
A little later on, Warren was on Bloomberg again, this time for the DNAs.
‘None of them accuse me of doing anything other than maybe they didn’t like a joke I told,’ Bloomberg said one point, with the audience reacting with audible gasps.
On Thursday, Warren explained to CNN’s Erin Burnett that it was the power dynamic that should be considered.
She pointed to how much courage it would take, as an employee, to stand up to the boss, especially one as moneyed as Bloomberg, who’s currently worth $63.7 billion, according to Forbes.
‘You’ve got to admit, that takes a lot to be able to do that, and that the consequence of it is he dumps some money on it and then stuffs a gag in the woman’s mouth,’ Warren said. ‘If he’s not willing to remove those gags and let those women and maybe those men talk, then he is disqualified from being president of the United States.’
On Thursday, at an event in Salt Lake City, Bloomberg had tried to simply brush off the bruises he took during the debate.
‘So how was your night last night?’ Bloomberg said to laughs, adding that he thought President Trump was the ‘real winner’ of the debate. He didn’t bring up any of Warren’s specific qualms, with his name-calling, nor the NDAs.
But in a statement on his campaign website Friday, Bloomberg said he had been doing a lot of ‘reflecting on the issue.’
‘[A]nd I’ve decided that for as long as I’m running the company, we won’t offer confidentiality agreements to resolve claims of sexual harassment or misconduct going forward,’ he announced.
Bloomberg also pledged to support the ‘Be Heard Act,’ a piece of legislation that was introduced by Democrats in the House and Senate last spring that revamps federal harassment laws.
‘When we share a respect for each other and treat all of our colleagues as we ourselves would wish to be treated, we all do our best work,’ Bloomberg wrote. ‘This is something Donald Trump does not understand – not when he ran his business, and not now when he is recklessly running our country.’
‘I will be a leader whom women can trust,’ he said.
Bloomberg is set to return to the Democratic debate stage Tuesday night in Charleston, South Carolina.
The billionaire candidate has decided to skip the first four contests – Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina – and focus on the so-called ‘Super Tuesday’ states instead, but he’s had to dip into Las Vegas and now Charleston after meeting the Democratic National Committee’s requirement to participate in the debates.