Bloomberg’s Record of Demeaning and Disrespecting Women
As he rises in the polls, his ugly history of discrimination and harassment comes front and center.
“Michael Bloomberg’s History of Demeaning Comments About Women” was the title of a story published in The New York Times last November as he was preparing to enter the Democrat presidential primary. The article noted a booklet Bloomberg was presented by members of his company in 1990 at his 48th birthday celebration. The booklet was entitled The Portable Bloomberg: The Wit and Wisdom of Michael Bloomberg, and it contained several sexist quotes attributed to Bloomberg, such as: “If women wanted to be appreciated for their brains, they’d go to the library instead of to Bloomingdale’s.”
In another quote, Bloomberg made a sales pitch for his computer terminal that “will do everything, including give you [oral sex],” to which he added, “I guess that puts a lot of you girls out of business.”
The Washington Post also ran a story highlighting Bloomberg’s sexist history entitled, “Mike Bloomberg for years has battled women’s allegations of profane, sexist comments.” The Post’s article was even more hard-hitting than the Times, noting criticism that Bloomberg’s company was “considered to be a hostile environment, artifacts of a workplace employees said was saturated with degrading comments.” The Post reported a history of lawsuits that women employees raised against Bloomberg for discrimination, sexual harassment, and degradation.
One case over workplace discrimination appears to sum up the many accusations of Bloomberg’s history of sexist and demeaning comments:
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.
Bloomberg’s former employee, David Zielenziger, claimed to have witnessed the conversation and called Bloomberg’s comment “outrageous.” He said, “I understood why she took offense.” Bloomberg continues to deny that he made the comment, and the lawsuit was eventually confidentially settled.
Bloomberg apparently has a history of berating female employees who became pregnant. On one occasion, upon hearing of an employee’s recent pregnancy, Bloomberg allegedly asked, “What the hell did you do a thing like that for?” On another occasion, when he learned that a female employee was having difficulty finding a nanny for her newborn child, Bloomberg blasted, “It’s a f—ing baby! All it does is eat and s—! It doesn’t know the difference between you and anyone else! All you need is some black who doesn’t have to speak English to rescue it from a burning building.”
With his clearly negative attitude toward women and pregnancy, it comes as no surprise that Bloomberg is a big proponent of abortion. As the Times reports, “Mr. Bloomberg has donated tens of millions of dollars to support reproductive rights and women’s health causes around the world, his aides said.” The former national chairwoman of Planned Parenthood spoke glowingly of Bloomberg, calling him “one of the biggest champions for women in the country and all over the world.” She touted a $250,000 donation he gave to the abortion mill in 2012 after a major donor had pulled funding.
However, no matter how much Bloomberg works to ingratiate himself to leftist feminists, the Post cogently observes, “The allegations that he tolerated a hostile office culture could undercut his ability to criticize President Trump’s alleged sexual misconduct and efforts to keep such claims private.”
These allegations appear to be just the tip of the iceberg as the white-hot spotlight focused by both political opponents and media outlets begins to expose Bloomberg’s record for the entire country. It will be interesting to see if Bloomberg is able to survive this scrutiny and win the support of female voters, which is essential if he has any hope of defeating Trump, let alone his Democrat opponents.