LAS VEGAS — Elizabeth Warren unleashed a stinging assault on Mike Bloomberg at the Democratic debate on Wednesday night over his past comments about women and his refusal to make public nondisclosure agreements with women who worked for him.
“I hope you heard what his defense was: ‘I’ve been nice to some women,'” Elizabeth Warren said in mocking her rival. “That just doesn’t cut it. The mayor has to stand on his record. What we need to know is exactly what’s lurking out there.”
“He has gotten some number of women – dozens, who knows – to sign nondisclosure agreements, both for sexual harassment and for gender discrimination in the workplace,” Warren continued, referring to his namesake financial services company. “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?”
Multiple women have told ABC News that they were interested in publicly sharing their stories about working for Bloomberg but were bound by confidentiality agreements and feared retaliation if they were to speak out.
Warren continued her attack and pressed Bloomberg to tell the crowd at the NBC/MSNBC debate here how many nondisclosure agreements there are — but he refused to answer.
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“They sign the agreements and that’s what we’re going to live with,” Bloomberg said of the women.
“We are not going to end these agreements because they were made consensually,” Bloomberg continued, adding that the agreements were made between “two parties that wanted to keep it quiet.”
“I’m sorry, no, the question is, are the women bound by being muzzled by you?” Warren pressed.
Bloomberg has come under fire for a booklet that was circulated in the 1990s documenting sexist and offensive comments he allegedly said to women who worked for him. In one of the most high-profile lawsuits brought against Bloomberg, one woman accused him of telling her to “kill it” when he learned she was pregnant. Bloomberg reached a confidentiality agreement with the woman.
Warren opened up the debate by referring to the allegations made in the booklet, saying: “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.”
Bloomberg has denied many of the allegations.
Joe Biden jumped in and also pressed Bloomberg to negate the nondisclosure agreements so the women could speak freely about their experiences.
“All the mayor has to do is say, ‘You are released from the nondisclosure agreements,'” said Biden.
“We have very few nondisclosure agreements. None of them accuse me of doing anything other than maybe they didn’t like a joke I told,” Bloomberg said.
