Billionaire presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg’s girlfriend, Diana Taylor, dismissed Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) concerns during an interview at a “Women for Mike” rally in Texas.
Democrat nomination hopeful Bloomberg has been facing mounting concerns over what he has characterized as “consensual” non-disclosure agreements between him and women with sexual harassment and misconduct complaints in the past. Of those complaints — the number of which has yet to be verified — Bloomberg has offered to release three.
The former New York mayor’s long-time partner, Diana Taylor, spoke with CBS at a campaign event focused on pulling women voters in Texas on February 24. Her response? “It was 30 years ago. Get over it,” she said.
“In none of them was he accused of doing anything, saying something nasty to a woman,” Taylor explained. “That is not who he is. Life has changed. I grew up in that world. It was a bro culture.” Then she doubled down on the passage of time. “We have come a very, very long way, and Michael Bloomberg has been at the forefront of that change,” she said.
Bloomberg has been trying to do much the same. During his troubled first debate appearance in Nevada, Senator Elizabeth Warren grilled him on his sketchy record. Bloomberg became visibly uncomfortable, responding to the barrage by saying, “None of them accuse me of doing anything, other than maybe they didn’t like a joke I told,” Bloomberg said.
Soon after, Bloomberg issued a public statement about the future of his company. “I’ve done a lot of reflecting on this issue over the past few days and I’ve decided that for as long as I’m running the company, we won’t offer confidentiality agreements to resolve claims of sexual harassment or misconduct going forward,” Bloomberg said.
“I recognize that NDAs, particularly when they are used in the context of sexual harassment and sexual assault, promote a culture of silence in the workplace and contribute to a culture of women not feeling safe or supported,” Bloomberg said.
Meanwhile, the Bloomberg campaign did its best to distance itself from Taylor’s remarks. “Diana offered her personal view from her forty years working in finance, not the view of the campaign,” a spokesperson said.