O’Reilly weighs in on Warren-Bloomberg exchange on nondisclosure agreements

Former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly chimed in on Twitter during Wednesday night’s Democratic primary debate in Las Vegas, during which former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg was criticized by his fellow candidates for his use of nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) to settle complaints from female employees.

“Warren pounding Bloomberg about non disclosure agreements signed by women,” O’Reilly tweeted, referring to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). “All companies have those. Bloomberg looks weak.”

Warren pounding Bloomberg about non disclosure agreements signed by women. All companies have those. Bloomberg looks weak.

— Bill O’Reilly (@BillOReilly) February 20, 2020

After Bloomberg was questioned on accusations of sexist and misogynistic behavior, Warren asked if he might release female employees from their NDAs “so we can hear their side of the story.”

“We have a very few nondisclosure agreements,” Bloomberg replied.  

“How many is that?” Warren asked.

“Let me finish,” Bloomberg said. “None of them accuse me of doing anything other than, maybe they didn’t like a joke I told.”

“There’s agreements between two parties that wanted to keep it quiet,” he continued. “And that’s up to them. They signed those agreements and we’ll live with it.”

Warren responded, “I’m sorry, no, the question is, are the women bound by being muzzled by you? And you could release them from that immediately.”

That Bloomberg eyeroll pic.twitter.com/ODQaugDSOG

— Alex Thompson (@AlxThomp) February 20, 2020

Bloomberg cited the awards that his company has won for being a good workplace, adding, “I have no tolerance for the kind of behavior that the ‘Me Too’ movement has exposed.”

O’Reilly has faced his own criticism over NDAs after he was ousted from Fox News in 2017 following reports that he had paid $13 million to five women to settle allegations of sexual misconduct. He has denied the allegations.

The New York Times also reported that O’Reilly paid $32 million to settle a sexual harassment claim.

After Fox News host and vocal Trump supporter Sean Hannity floated O’Reilly returning to the network late last year, a group of female former Fox staffers said it was “ironic” that a man accused of sexual harassment was being courted to return to Fox News while “his many victims and other survivors of sexual harassment at the same network continue to be bound by onerous confidentiality provisions that prevent them from disclosing what those harassers said or did to them.”