As Democrats head to the polls in 14 states for Super Tuesday primary voting, former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg now has to worry about a dossier of his own.
However, unlike a certain dossier of the Trump variety promoted by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele, I’d guess a good majority of the Bloomberg allegations are at least based in fact.
No, it doesn’t involve Bloomberg collaborating with Russia or any strange stories involving hotel rooms and women of dubious reputation. It’s more quotidian — and yet, becoming public just as the Bloomberg campaign faces its first test, it yet again reinforces the narrative that Bloomberg fostered a toxic environment at his company.
The dossier, according to the U.K. Daily Mail, involves the recollections of more than 40 employees at Bloomberg LP who talked about how the boss treated women in his orbit — as well as the way he refused to fire an editor who was known to give unsolicited massages to female employees.
The Daily Mail’s lengthy headline said it all: “Bombshell dossier claims Mike Bloomberg abused employee who now features in his campaign, called another woman ‘dog face’ and failed to sack editor who gave employees MASSAGES.”
To a certain extent, it’s nothing that hasn’t been at least suggested about Bloomberg since he joined the Democratic primary field. Yet, the allegations, first reported by Business Insider on Monday, are more evidence that the only “moderate” candidate left on the Democratic dais who isn’t named Joe Biden is pretty much a wreck when it comes to his behavior toward the distaff gender.
So, first, let’s talk about the names it alleges he called women. In addition to the ones we’ve already heard — “fat broads” and “horse-faced lesbians” — we can add “dog face,” “Stopatrucksk” (a reference to a woman’s last name and weight) and “SFUs” (women who are “short, fat and ugly”).
The report also alleged he refused to promote Maggie Berry, a woman who was featured in a Bloomberg ad highlighting his positive treatment of women who worked for him, because of her weight.
A former employee said that Berry was passed over for a promotion in the 1990s that would have involved client-side interactions.
“I will not have that fat woman representing my company,” Bloomberg allegedly said. The former employee says that a man was hired instead, according to the Daily Mail.
Berry defended Bloomberg in a statement: “Having Mike’s backing and support has allowed me, and many other women at Bloomberg, to progress into management positions overseeing a significant part of our business,” she said, according to the Daily Mail.
That statement doesn’t exactly share any particular knowledge about whether that interaction occurred, however — nor would we expect Berry to have any, given she obviously wouldn’t have been present.
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Other fun allegations in the dossier include one where Bloomberg told another employee, “Don’t let the lesbian get you down!” The “lesbian” referred to another powerful female employee.
Then there was the case of Washington editor Al Hunt, whose name was frequently mentioned in the article.
“Hunt’s alleged sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior was the subject of several human resource complaints and at least two financial settlements, sources said,” according to the Daily Mail.
“During his time at Bloomberg News, Hunt is said to have created a reputation among employees for a quick temper and giving women massages without asking first.
“A source said that he would often walk up behind a female colleague seated at her desk and, without warning, begin rubbing her shoulders.”
“I remember seeing his hands move pretty rapidly between her shoulders and her arms. His hands were all over her,” a former employee said, according to the Daily Mail.
Another anecdote about Hunt says that he tried to hold a female employee’s hand without consent. When the employee withdrew her hand, Hunt is alleged to have put his in her pocket so he could continue holding her hand. Not at all creepy.
Then there was the allegation that Hunt asked an employee, after she got a matching manicure and pedicure, whether anything else matched, the Daily Mail reported. He also reportedly slapped a woman’s bare thigh and dared her to go to human resources, according to the report.
“Al Hunt talked a progressive game of hiring more women and promoting them, but it was mere virtue-signaling. Young female reporters were just shiny new toys for him,” a former employee said, the Daily Mail reported.
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These women were known as “Al’s Angels” and would often get bonuses and promotions, even as he allegedly made sexist and sexualized remarks about them, according to the report.
Hunt denied the allegations, although in terms that struck this reader as strangely equivocal.
“There never was a propensity to touch women in inappropriate ways. The shoulder rub charge is wrong,” he said in a statement, according to the Daily Mail.
“There was one incident in which I was talking to a group of political reporters and apparently put my hand on the shoulder of a reporter sitting in front of me; NOT rubbing her neck, putting my hand on shoulder while talking to other reporters.
“She spoke to HR about it, who looked into it, spoke with reporters present and concluded there was nothing inappropriate and thus no need to inform me. I only was told about this several years later.”
Hunt was also accused of being abusive toward employees during his time at Bloomberg LP, according to the Daily Mail. In one tragicomic instance described in the article, he berated employees for not being able to find his glasses. He was later informed they were on his head. In another instance that doesn’t have the tinge of ironic humor to it, he purportedly threw a stapler at an assistant.
“He could be abusive to people working for him and very, very demanding and not always kind about [it],” one employee said, according to the Daily Mail.
As you can probably guess, despite being amply informed of Hunt’s behavior by employees, Bloomberg upper management decided not to intervene.
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“I raised Al Hunt’s treatment of female employees to senior managers in the company on several occasions, after repeatedly witnessing its impact. I was never informed of any action,” one former Bloomberg employee said, according to the Daily Mail.
Another woman, who said that Hunt grabbed her by the arm and said, on another occasion, that “you are going to learn it pays to be an a–hole,” also claims she went to HR, according to the Daily Mail. HR promptly did nothing about it, the report stated. Hunt was with the company between 2005 and 2018.
Here’s the thing about the dossier: All of it is damning and none of it is new.
Pretty much everyone on the Democratic side of the aisle condemns President Donald Trump as a crude billionaire who treats women badly and says reprehensible things in private. Now they’ve taken, as one of their own, a candidate who embodies all of these qualities — a man who reportedly used to openly remark, upon seeing an attractive woman, “nice t–s.”
Bloomberg’s alleged crudeness with women is nothing new. Elizabeth Warren got plenty of mileage out of “fat broads,” “horse-faced lesbians” and the allegation that he told a pregnant employee to “kill it” — as well she should have.
He had women sign non-disclosure agreements, something which the entire Democratic primary field has scolded him over. His campaign has mumbled under its breath that three of the women have been released from those contracts.
At least two, according to the Daily Mail, have “said they are not willingly silent.” My guess is that, when and if they’re released from the agreements, they’re not going to talk about how wonderful and supportive Bloomberg was and how the workplace at Bloomberg LP was nothing close to toxic.
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In response, Bloomberg LP has said that it “strongly supports a culture that treats all employees with dignity and respect, and enforces that culture through clear policies and practices.” We’ve heard that line time and time again from Michael Bloomberg and his companies.
Here’s Bloomberg himself on what he would do if one of his employees acted inappropriately toward a woman: “I have no tolerance for the kind of behavior that the #MeToo movement has exposed and anybody that does anything wrong in our company, we investigate it, and if it’s appropriate, they’re gone that day.”
All right, then: Is it enough to hope that this petty, soda-banning misogynist takes his own advice and fires himself from the Democratic field?
Story cited here.
