Damage Control: Bloomberg Will Release Women From NDAs
He seeks to fend off sexual-harassment allegations by releasing three women from NDAs.
“I’ve had the company go back over its record and they’ve identified 3 [nondisclosure agreements] that we signed over the past 30-plus years with women to address complaints about comments they said I had made,” Democrat presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg announced in a statement. “If any of them want to be released from their NDA so that they can talk about those allegations, they should contact the company and they’ll be given a release.”
Bloomberg’s action is clearly aimed at damage control following his disastrous debate performance last Wednesday when Elizabeth Warren blasted him as “a billionaire who calls women fat broads and horse-faced lesbians” and who hides his behavior behind nondisclosure agreements. Warren challenged Bloomberg, “So, Mr. Mayor, are you willing to release all of those women from those nondisclosure agreements so we can hear their side of the story?”
It remains to be determined whether Bloomberg’s actions will stop the bleeding. It likely will rest on the content of those NDAs and whether there are more than the three women Bloomberg alluded to. His horrible track record with women would indicate there are.
Warren for one isn’t about to let Bloomberg off so easy. She responded, “If there are only three, then why didn’t he sign a blanket release? If he’s limiting the number, then you can’t know whether there are three, or 30, or 300, and that should not be in the control of Michael Bloomberg.”
It’s clear that Warren’s stop-and-frisk damaged Bloomberg badly. His skyrocketing poll numbers have taken a dive since the debate. Warren herself has enjoyed a slight bounce, though after her fourth-place finish in Nevada and her low polling in South Carolina, it could be the end of the line for Warren by Super Tuesday. We suppose she’s aiming to go out in a blaze of glory by torpedoing Bloomberg’s campaign.