During the Democratic debate in South Carolina Tuesday night, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) cited an allegation against fellow presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg that he told a female employee upon hearing that she was pregnant that she should “kill it” in reference to her unborn child.
The billionaire business mogul has consistently denied the allegation and ended up settling with the employee, but an alleged witness to the exchange recently went on the record with The Washington Post to back up the woman’s claim.
After repeating her much-critiqued claim that she lost a special education teaching job once because she was pregnant, Warren worked in a hard jab on Bloomberg, the relatively moderate candidate best poised to take down the Democratic frontrunner, socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
“At least I didn’t have a boss who said to me, ‘kill it,’ the way that mayor Bloomberg is alleged to have said to one of his pregnant employees,” Warren said after claiming her job was given to someone else after she became “visibly pregnant.”
“I never said that,” Bloomberg responded. “I never said that, and for the record if she was a teacher in New York City she would never have had that problem.” (full exchange below).
For its recent report on past employees’ claims of sexually degrading comments by Bloomberg, The Washington Post interviewed a former Bloomberg employee who said he witnessed the “kill it” exchange and backed up the account of his fellow former employee. The Post reports:
The most high-profile case was from a former saleswoman [Sekiko Sakai Garrison]. She sued Bloomberg personally as well as his company, alleging workplace discrimination. She alleged Bloomberg told her to “kill it” when he learned she was pregnant. Bloomberg has denied her allegation under oath, and he reached a confidential settlement with the saleswoman.
The Washington Post interviewed a former Bloomberg employee, David Zielenziger, who said he witnessed the conversation with the saleswoman. Zielenziger, who said he had not previously spoken publicly about the matter, said Bloomberg’s behavior toward the woman was “outrageous. I understood why she took offense.” …
“I remember she had been telling some of her girlfriends that she was pregnant,” Zielenziger said. “And Mike came out and I remember he said, ‘Are you going to kill it?’ And that stopped everything. And I couldn’t believe it.”
Zielenziger said he never talked to Garrison about what he heard and did not participate in her lawsuit. He said Bloomberg’s question was crude, inappropriate — and typical. “He talked kind of crudely about women all the time,” Zielenziger said.
The Post also reviewed court documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, providing excerpts from them as well as access to some of the full documents. In its report, it provides the following excerpt on the “kill it” account from Sekiko Sakai Garrison v. Michael Bloomberg and Bloomberg LP:
On April 11, 1995 at approximately 11:20 a.m., Bloomberg was having a photograph taken with two female Company salespeople and a group of N.Y.U. Business School students, in the company snack area. When Bloomberg noticed Garrison standing nearby, he asked, “Why didn’t they ask you to be in the picture? I guess they saw your face.” Continuing his penchant for ridiculing recently married women in his employ, Bloomberg asked plaintiff, “How’s married life? You married?” Plaintiff responded that her marriage was great and was going to get better in a few months: that she was pregnant, and the baby was due the following September. He responded to her “Kill it!” Plaintiff asked Bloomberg to repeat himself, and again he said, “Kill it!” and muttered, “Great! Number 16!” suggesting to plaintiff his unhappiness that sixteen women in the Company had maternity-related status. Then he walked away.
Read the Post’s full report here.
Video and transcript of the exchange between Warren and Bloomberg moderated by CBS News host Gayle King:
GAYLE KING: Senator Warren, I’m coming to you. I want to direct this question to you because you— because mayor Bloomberg has said he got in this race late because he doesn’t believe that any of you on stage can beat Donald Trump. You said mayor Bloomberg is not the safest candidate. He is the riskiest candidate. What did you mean by that?
ELIZABETH WARREN: I mean that mayor Bloomberg— let’s think of it this way. We’re here in Charleston, and you know who is going to be in Charleston later this week is Donald Trump. He’s going to be here to raise money for his buddy Senator Lindsey Graham, who funded Lindsey Graham’s campaign for re-election last time? It was mayor Bloomberg. And that’s not the only right-wing senator that mayor Bloomberg has funded. In 2016, he dumped $12 million into the Pennsylvania Senate race to help re-elect an anti-choice, right-wing Republican senator. And I just want to say, the woman challenger was terrific, she lost by a single point. In 2012, he scooped in to try to defend another Republican senator against a woman challenger. That was me. It didn’t work, but he tried hard. I don’t care how much money mayor Bloomberg has. The core of the Democratic Party will never trust him. He has not earned their trust. I will. And the fact that he cannot earn the trust of core of the Democratic Party means he is the riskiest candidate standing on this stage.
KING: Mayor Bloomberg, would you like to respond? Mayor Bloomberg?
MICHAEL BLOOMBERG: I have been training for this job since I stepped on the pile that was still smoldering on 9/11. I know what to do. I’ve shown I know how to run a country. I’ve run the city, which is almost the same size— bigger than most countries in the world. I am not the— I’m the one choice that makes some sense. I have the experience. I have the resources. And I have the record. And all those side shows that the senator wants to bring up have nothing to do with that. When people hired me to run New York City three times in an overwhelmingly democratic progressive city, they elected me again and again.
WARREN: I was mentioned in this. I’d like— I’d like to respond. He called me out by name. And referred to what I talk about as a side show. You know, this is personal for me. When I was 21 years old, I got my first job as a special education teacher. I loved that job. And by the end of the first year, I was year, I was visibly pregnant. The the principal wished me luck and gave my job to someone else. Pregnancy discrimination, you bet. But I was 21 years old. I didn’t have a union to protect me. And I didn’t have any federal law on my side. So I packed up my stuff, and I went home. At least I didn’t have a boss who said to me, “kill it,” the way that mayor Bloomberg is alleged to have said to one of his pregnant employees.
BLOOMBERG: I never said that.
WARREN: People want a chance to hear from the women who have worked for mayor Bloomberg.
BLOOMBERG: I never said that, and for the record if she was a teacher in New York City she would never have had that problem. We treated our teachers the right way, and the unions will tell you exactly that.
WARREN: Let us have the women have an opportunity to speak. The Bloomberg corporations and mayor Bloomberg himself have been accused of discrimination. They are bound by non-disclosures so that they cannot speak. If he says there is nothing to hide here, then sign a blanket release and let those women speak out so that they can tell their stories the way I can tell my story without having— they’re going to be sued by a billionaire.
NORAH O’DONNELL: …At the last debate, you said some of your female employees might not have liked some of your jokes. Did these women take your jokes wrong or were you wrong to make the jokes?
BLOOMBERG: Probably wrong to make the jokes. I don’t remember what they were. If it bothered them, I was wrong, and I apologize. I’m sorry for that. What what happened here is we went back 40 years and we could only find three case where women said they were uncomfortable. Nobody accused me of anything other than making a comment or two. And what the senator did suggest was that we release these women from the non-disclosure agreement. I did that two days later, and my company has said we will not use nondisclosure agreements ever again. The senator has got it. And I don’t know what else she wants us to do.
WARREN: I’ll be clear.
BLOOMBERG: We’re following exactly what she asked to do.
WARREN: I’ll tell you exactly what I want to do.
BLOOMBERG: The trouble is with this senator enough is never enough for what this— I’m going to start focusing on some of these other things. We just cannot continue to re-litigate this every time. We did what she asked and thank you.