Democratic presidential hopeful Michael Bloomberg appeared to blow off concerns Wednesday about the workplace environment within his company.
Bloomberg, who joined ABC’s “The View” to discuss his presidential run, downplayed reports that there were women who wanted to be released from their Non Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) with his company. (RELATED: Joy Behar Names And Shames Democrats Who Voted Against New War Powers Resolution Restraining Trump)
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Abby Huntsman put the challenge to Bloomberg, saying that although she had friends who worked for him and had great things to say about him personally, there were some concerns voiced by others about a “frat-like culture” and lewd comments.
Huntsman added that several women, according to ABC, wanted to go public with their stories but were bound by NDAs. “As Senator Warren put it, if your company has an enviable record, what do you have to hide?” she asked.
“We don’t have anything to hide but we made legal agreements which both sides wanted to keep things from coming out. They have a right to do that,” Bloomberg responded. “They just made an agreement and the company made an agreement that we wouldn’t discuss a certain thing, and in most cases settlements typically in an agreement like that would be made. Every company goes through the same thing. Money changed hands and whatever.”
“In this Me Too era though —” Huntsman pushed back.
Bloomberg continued to brush off her concerns, saying, “We have very few and I think if you talk to most women in the company they would say equal pay, equal promotion, equal opportunity. It’s a great place to work. Did I ever tell a bawdy joke, yeah, sure I did. Do I regret it? Yes, it’s embarrassing, but, you know, that’s the way I grew up.”
Huntsman pressed once more, asking whether Bloomberg had any desire to lift the NDAs and allow the women to speak.
“No. We have an agreement,” Bloomberg responded. “You couldn’t do it if you wanted to. Incidentally, I think an awful lot of the women would not want to do that. There may be a few but I don’t think so. And we don’t have that many of them. We have 20,000 people. We’ve been in business since 1981, and in recruiting, you know, I think most people would say we’re a great place to work, at least I hope so.”