Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts rebuked former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg for allegedly telling a pregnant employee to have an abortion.
The comment, which Warren made during Tuesday night’s Democratic presidential debate in South Carolina, was the latest in a string of attacks launched against the billionaire in recent weeks.
“When I was 21 years old, I got my first job as a special education teacher,” Warren explained. “I loved that job. By the end of the first year, I was visibly pregnant. 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 federal law on my side, so I packed up, and I went home.”
She added, “At least I didn’t have a boss who said to me, ‘Kill it,’ the way that Mayor Bloomberg’s alleged to have said.”
The former mayor then denied ever making the remark. The alleged comment was first reported earlier this month, along with a number of other sexual harassment claims that were resolved through nondisclosure agreements.
“The Bloomberg corporations and Mayor Bloomberg himself have been accused of discrimination,” Warren continued. “They are bound by nondisclosures 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.”
A moderator interjected and asked, “Did they take your jokes wrong, or were you wrong to make the jokes?”
“Probably wrong to make the jokes,” Bloomberg countered. “I don’t remember what it was. If it bothered them, I was wrong, and I apologize. I am sorry for that. What happened here is we went back 40 years, and we could only find three cases where women said they were uncomfortable. Nobody accused me of doing anything other than just making a comment or two.”
Bloomberg, after Warren’s request that he release the women in during last week’s debate, offered to release three women who had agreed to nondisclosure agreements from them.
