Thanks to his billions former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is getting some traction in the Democratic presidential race. But as he becomes more visible so does his past. Hes given his opponents good reason to dig up dirt on him.
And boy is there a lot of dirt.
Rude and Offensive
Hes made plenty of rude statements. And nearly as many offensive statements. We have documentation. Elisabeth DeMarse Bloomberg L.P.s former chief marketing officer created a booklet as a gag gift for him in 1990 titled The Portable Bloomberg: The Wit and Wisdom of Michael Bloomberg."
Bloomberg Belittles Farmers
Not even farmers are safe from Bloombergs contempt. He belittled them four years ago on a panel at Oxford University. I could teach anybody even people in this room no offense intended to be a farmer" he said.
Its a process. You dig a hole you put a seed in you put dirt on top add water up comes the corn. You could learn that."
Vice President Mike Pence responded by tweeting a speech the legendary Paul Harvey made at the Future Farmers of America convention in 1978. Its a beautiful speech about God saying he needs a farmer.
It begins: On the eighth day God looked down on his planned paradise and said I need a caretaker. So God made a farmer. God said I need somebody willing to get up before dawn milk cows work all day in the fields milk cows again eat supper and then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board. So God made a farmer."
WATCH the amazing video below.
She wrote in the introduction Yes these are all actual quotes. No nothing has been embellished or exaggerated. And yes some things were too outrageous to include."
A lot of his quotes cannot be reproduced here because this is a family-friendly site. Many of them use profanity and talk about sex. Usually degrading exploitative sex. Apparently his former marketing office left out others even worse than those.
Here are three of the tamer ones. Regarding women he said If women wanted to be appreciated for their brains theyd go to the library instead of Bloomingdales." And I know for a fact that any self-respecting woman who walks past a construction site and doesnt get a whistle will turn around and walk past again and again until she does get one."
Hes no kinder about the British royals. The Royal Family what a bunch of misfits a gay an architect that horsey faced lesbian and a kid who gave up Koo Stark for some fat broad."
Bloombergs Response
Bloomberg campaign spokesperson Stu Loeser said the booklet included comments that may or may not have been said." He told The New York Times in November that Mike has come to see that some of what he has said is disrespectful and wrong. … He believes his words have not always aligned with his values and the way he has led his life." Another offensive incident took place when Bloomberg was taking a photo with some people. He saw an employee standing nearby. Sekiko Sakai Garrison was not in the picture. He asked her Why didnt they ask you to be in the picture? I guess they saw your face." He went on Hows married life? You married?" She said she was expecting a baby. Bloomberg responded Kill it." He then muttered Great! Number 16!" Garrison interpreted the remarks as telling her to have an abortion or she would lose her job. The 16" apparently referred to the number of pregnant women in the company. Garrison filed a lawsuit alleging that Bloomberg and other employees engaged in a pattern and practice of sexual harassment sexual degradation of women and discrimination." Garrison alleged that Bloomberg would berate pregnant women. What the hell did you do a thing like that for?" She said he told an employee who had trouble finding a nanny All you need is some black who doesnt have to speak English to rescue it from a burning building."Confidential Settlement Over Remarks
Under oath Bloomberg denied the exchange with Garrison occurred. But he reached a confidential settlement with her which sources say was in the six figures. A former Bloomberg employee David Zielenziger said he observed the conversation. He told The Washington Post He talked kind of crudely about women all the time." In 1996 Bloomberg told The Guardian I like theater dining and chasing women." In his 1997 autobiography Bloomberg By Bloomberg he bragged that he had a girlfriend in every city." Help us champion truth freedom limited government and human dignity. Support The Stream Regarding the elderly and healthcare Bloomberg once said If you show up with cancer and youre 95 yrs old we should say Theres no cure we cant do anything." One clever woman responded on Twitter What if youre 86 yrs old youve been treated for colorectal cancer cancerous lung growths and pancreatic cancer? And your name is Ruth Bader Ginsburg?"Rude Remarks About Minorities
In 2011 Bloomberg said an enormous cohort of black and Latino males" who dont know how to behave in the workplace." He was promoting a multimillion-dollar initiative to help minorities gain employment during his tenure as New York City mayor. In 2015 he made another controversial remark about minorities. Defending the polices stop and frisk policy he said the way to bring down murder rates is to put a lot of cops" in minority neighborhoods because thats where all the crime is." And that wasnt all. He said the end of discriminatory redlining by banks led to the 2008 economic crisis. Redlining was a practice where banks refused to offer credit to certain places on a map which were often drawn to keep out minority neighborhoods. Bloombergs bloopers are getting quite a bit of media attention since hes rising in the Democratic polls for president. The RealClearPolitics average of polls has him at 14.2. Will his gaffes hurt his chances? Biden has drastically slipped in the polls possibly due to all of his misstatements. The same may very well happen to Bloomberg. In the meantime please view this beautiful tribute to the farmers so easily dismissed by Mayor Bloomberg. Follow Rachel on Twitter at Rach_IC. Follow The Stream at streamdotorg. Send tips to [email protected].