Bloomberg Gets MeTooed.

Raise your hand if you’re shocked by this. 

According to the sourcelink, Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg has been the central figure in a whole mess of lawsuits that say his company has a culture of rampant harassment.  The most recent of these is from this year, but most are quite old. Naturally they’re coming back up to the surface since he’s now a presidential candidate.

And he expected this to happen.  A recent statement provided to the NYT said that Bloomberg has admitted that “some of what he has said is disrespectful and wrong.” And there was also this gem from his spokesman:

‘He believes his words have not always aligned with his values and the way he has led his life.’

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!  That’s artful. “His words haven’t always lined up with the way he’s led his life.”  Mmkay. Saying words out loud is part of leading your life, but whatevs.

This weekend, Bloomberg addressed past complaints from women, saying, “There will always be somebody that’s not happy, but we are — we do very well in terms of attracting men and women to come to work in the company, and the retention rate with both of them is good as I think any real company. So, I’m very proud of what we do.”

Complaints levied against Bloomberg since 1981 include claims from more than 70 women who worked for the company, who said that their pay was cut, they were excluded from meetings and demoted, etc.  One woman said she was told by Bloomberg to get an abortion when she announced she was expecting, because Bloomberg looked at maternity leave as “theft” from the company.

A lawyer who has spoken with several of the women involved in the lawsuits against Bloomberg said, of his company:

‘The atmosphere was toxic and harassing, with locker room atmosphere that was a sexually harassing atmosphere. If Mr. Bloomberg is running for president, I think the public needs to know what actually happened in this business. It’s his company, it’s his business. He frames the atmosphere. He has to be responsible for it.”

Bloomberg has settled the lawsuits but apparently created a “notoriously sexist and hostile work environment” that “has been well documented and has been the subject of myriad law suits.”

Anyway, that’s happening. As you were.