Warren, Bloomberg get in heated exchange over alleged treatment of female employees

Democratic presidential hopefuls Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg got into a heated exchange during the primary debate on Tuesday over Bloomberg’s alleged past treatment of female employees.

Warren invoked her experience of getting fired as a result of being pregnant when she was a special education teacher before she brought up an alleged sexist comment Bloomberg made to a female employee in the 1990s. 

“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. I didn’t have any federal law on my side,” Warren said. “At least I didn’t have a boss who said to me, ‘Kill it.'”

Warren was referring to an accusation that Bloomberg said, “Kill it” to a female employee after he found out she was pregnant. Bloomberg during the debate denied ever making such a comment.

“I never said that,” Bloomberg said. “And for the record, if she was a teacher in New York City, she would have never have had that problem. We treated our teachers the right way, and the unions will tell you that.”

Bloomberg has come under fire for his initial refusal to release former employees, including women, from nondisclosure agreements. Warren hit him on the issue during last week’s Democratic debate in Las Vegas. 

Bloomberg announced last week that he cleared the way for three women believed to have accused the former New York City mayor of sexist or misogynistic comments to be released from their nondisclosure agreements.