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.