Bloomberg to pregnant employee: ‘Kill it!’

Bloomberg to pregnant employee: ‘Kill it!’

Is the Washington Post ready to endorse one billionaire to replace another as President of the United States? Not quite, it seems. At least not if the billionaire is former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. On Saturday the paper came out with a “character study of Bloomberg that is sure to inflict a ding on his rising star among the Democratic hopefuls.

According to the article, the outwardly milquetoast Bloomie has quite the reputation among his employees for having a foul mouth and a sexist bent toward female staffers. So ubiquitous are these traits that for his 48th birthday in 1990, his former chief marketing officer, Elisabeth DeMarse, gave him as gag gift a published booklet titled “The Portable Bloomberg: The Wit & Wisdom of Michael Bloomberg.” In the intro to the booklet, which can be read here, DeMarse wrote, “No, nothing has been embellished or exaggerated. And yes, some things were too outrageous to include.”

One of the quotes attributed to him (and which is unredacted in the original) reads:

Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?

A good salesperson is like a man who tries to pick up women at a bar by saying, “Do you want to f*ck? He gets turned down a lot — but he gets f*cked a lot, too!”

The Post quotes DeMarse as having told New York magazine after she left the company that Bloomberg’s comments were “a bonding thing when everyone laughs. You stop thinking that it might be inappropriate.”

But not everything that has issued from Bloomie’s mouth was intended for yuks, or taken as such. According to a lawsuit filed by Sekiko Sakai Garrison, described as top saleswoman in the organization, revealed to the boss that she was pregnant and that the baby was due the following September, Bloomberg responded “Kill it!” Garrison asked him to repeat what he had said and he did verbatim, adding, “Great! Number 16!” Garrison took this to be a reflection of his unhappiness that sixteen women in the company had maternity-related status.

The Post concludes by nothing that “Bloomberg eventually agreed to a confidential financial settlement with Garrison, who had sought $5 million in compensatory damages and $300,000 in punitive damages.”

The incident will register as a double whammy among prospective voters. Those on the Right will be put off my his inhumane position on abortion. Those on the Left will be offended by his cavalier treatmentof women.

Call this a lose-lose.

Ben Bowles

Ben Bowles

Ben Bowles is a freelance writer and regular contributor to "Liberty Unyielding."

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