Warren Rips Bloomberg for Allegedly Telling Pregnant Employee to ‘Kill’ It

During Tuesday night’s Democratic debate, presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren called out fellow 2020 contender Mike Bloomberg over decades-old allegations that he told a pregnant employee to “kill” her unborn child.

Warren recounted her first job as a special education teacher, a position she “loved” but was dismissed from after she became “visibly pregnant” by the end of the first year.

“Pregnancy discrimination, you bet,” the Massachusetts senator said. “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 allegedly told a female employee,”kill it!” when she told him she was pregnant, according to the former Bloomberg executive’s 1997 lawsuit.

The lawsuit filed in New York by Sekiko Sakai Garrison alleges Bloomberg followed up his first remark with another offensive comment, “Great! Number 16,” apparently referring to the number of pregnant employees on his payroll.

“Sexual harassment and sexual degradation of women at Bloomberg was pervasive,” the lawsuit states.

“Never said it. Period. End of story,” Bloomberg responded to Warren Tuesday, adding that he did not know what the woman was talking about when she alleged the comment.

Reports of the former New York City mayor’s demeaning comments towards women and others have circulated for years, some documented in a book of one-liners gifted to him by work colleagues.

On Friday, Bloomberg said he planned to release female former employees from non-disclosure agreements regarding alleged sexual harassment at his company, Bloomberg L.P. after Warren criticized him on the contracts during the last Democratic primary debate, demanding that he release the women from them.

“The trouble is with this senator is enough is never enough,” the former New York City mayor said Tuesday, adding that he was “probably wrong” to make jokes that offended his female employees.