Michael Bloomberg’s valiant effort to buy the Democratic presidential nomination has been undercut by a few things: his corpselike charisma, his appalling debate skills, his inability to offer up any concrete reason he should be president other than that he has a lot of money. He’s got some serious political baggage, like the stop & frisk policing policies that targeted young men of color during his New York City mayoral reign, that are keeping him from tapping into key voter demographics. And, of course, he was a super creepy boss. But that’s behind him now! Sorry to anyone annoyed!
On a 60 Minutes segment on Sunday night, Bloomberg addressed some of the truly endless uncouth statements his employees say he made to and about women on staff, which, for the record, include things like, “If women wanted to be appreciated for their brains, they’d go to the library instead of to Bloomingdale’s,” and that he would “do” a woman employee, or that a pregnant employee should “Kill it.” (My colleague Ashley Reese compiled a lengthy collection of sexist Bloombergisms here, should you care to read more.)
“Years ago on the trading room floors, things were different,” Bloomberg told correspondent Scott Pelley, invoking the oft-used Locker Room Talk clause. “I apologize for that. I’m sorry if someone was hurt. If I bothered- if I annoyed somebody or hurt somebody, I apologize. I can’t go rewrite history. I can only tell you now, it’s a different world.”
“It’s a different world, but the question is, is it a different man?” Pelley asked.
“Oh, I think, for sure. You evolve with times. We’re all a product of the world we live in. Shame on you if you don’t learn and try to be better,” Bloomberg said.
Never mind that Bloomberg was on camera—on Celebrity Apprentice, with Donald Trump!—making sexist comments as recently as 2008, or that he made transphobic comments as recently as 2019, or that people do change over time, but maybe not that much, and said change is particularly suspect when said person is running for president.
Sorry if you were annoyed, though!