2020 candidate Michael Bloomberg seems to have more in common with President Donald Trump than he’d like to admit.
On Saturday, the Washington Post published a 1997 lawsuit against Bloomberg and his company filed by Sekiko Sakai Garrison, a former salesperson, that revealed that the billionaire had made shockingly misogynistic comments to Garrison and other female employees.
In her lawsuit, Garrison alleged that when she told Bloomberg she was pregnant, he responded, “Kill it!” and said it again when she asked him to repeat himself.
“Great! Number 16!” he allegedly said, a complaint about how many employees had gotten pregnant.
A former employee for Bloomberg, David Zielenziger, confirmed Garrison’s account to the Post.
“He talked kind of crudely about women all the time,” Zielenziger said of his former boss. Indeed, the lawsuit alleged that Bloomberg would say “I’d fuck that in a second” upon seeing certain women.
He allegedly told several female employees that “all of you girls” should “line up” to give oral sex to male coworker who was getting married “as a wedding present.”
Garrison’s suit also alleged that Bloomberg had made a racist comment while chewing out a female employee who was struggling to find someone to help take care of her child.
“It’s a fucking baby!” he said, according to the lawsuit. “All you need is some black who doesn’t have to speak English to rescue it from a burning building.”
Bloomberg, who denied the accusations under oath, ended up settling with Garrison for an undisclosed amount.
The Post cited another lawsuit by former Bloomberg employee Mary Ann Olszewski, who sued Bloomberg LLP after a supervisor allegedly raped her. According to her suit, there was a culture of “sexual degradation of women” at the company. She alleged that Bloomberg would say “I’d like to do that piece of meat” about his employees.
After the Post published its report, Bloomberg claimed via Twitter that he has “demonstrated” throughout his career that he “will always be a champion for women in the workplace.”
Bloomberg’s campaign told the Post that the billionaire “never tolerated any kind of discrimination or harassment” at his company.
