Michael Bloomberg once told pregnant female employee to 'kill it', spoke crudely about women 'all the time'
He hasn’t been a part of the primaries yet but former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg’s candidature for the Democratic presidential nomination is already witnessing enough pressure.
The 78-year-old recently came under the scanner after an old audio surfaced over his remarks targeting black people. The billionaire candidate, who is self-funding his campaign, is now facing another charge over how insensitive he is towards women.
According to a report in the Washington Post, Bloomberg had told one of his female employees once to "kill it" after she revealed her pregnancy.
A former employee even alleged that the rich businessman spoke "crudely about women all the time". The charges now have put his presidential campaign under the lenses once more.
Bloomberg was insensitive to women employees more than once
On April 11, 1995, saleswoman Sekiko Sakai Garrison told Bloomberg that she was pregnant. He, however, asked her to undergo an abortion, according to a lawsuit of 1997, which was settled privately.
The court documents mention that Bloomberg allegedly said "kill it" after coming to learn about Garrison's pregnancy. The billionaire was in fact accused of making inappropriate remarks at the woman of Japanese descent.
"Plaintiff asked Bloomberg to repeat himself, and again he said, "Kill it!" and muttered, "Great! Number 16!" suggesting his unhappiness over the fact that 16 women in the company had maternity-related issues.
There were even accusations of racism against Bloomberg who allegedly told a female employee to hire "some black" when she told him that she was struggling to find childcare.
"It's a f***ing baby! All it does is eat and s**t! 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," he had said in July 1993.
David Zielenziger, a former employee of Bloomberg, backed the accusations to say that the Democrat did not speak favorably about women. He even labeled Bloomberg's "kill it" remark as "outrageous".
Bloomberg's baggage is growing
Bloomberg became a Republican in 2001 and Independent in 2007 before returning to the Democratic Party in 2018. He joined the presidential fray last November and a number of experts are of the view that Bloomberg is a natural beneficiary of the fall of his rival Joe Biden.
However, his alleged statements and several lawsuits hitting his firm over the years claiming that women were treated unfairly in the workplace could hurt his campaign.
Bloomberg backed the "stop-and-frisk" policies during his term as the mayor of NYC (2002-13) and critics said it was nothing short of racism that eyed black and Hispanic youngsters.
He was called 'TOTAL RACIST' by Donald Trump after the audio, posted reportedly by a supporter of Democratic frontrunner Bernie Sanders, surfaced.
Bloomberg has apologized for his remarks and also took an outreach initiative recently named 'Mike For Black America' to kill the race concerns against him. The billionaire is eyeing the March 3 'Super Tuesday' when 16 states and territories will go into the Democratic primary.