The Poynter Institute Menu Donate State Editions * California * Florida * Iowa * Michigan * New Hampshire * New York * North Carolina * Pennsylvania * Texas * West Virginia * Wisconsin Issues * All Issues * Online hoaxes * Coronavirus * Health Care * Immigration * Extremism * Taxes * Marijuana * Environment * Crime * Guns * Foreign Policy * LGBTQ+ People * Joe Biden * Kamala Harris * Donald Trump * Mitch McConnell * Hakeem Jeffries * Ron DeSantis Media * PunditFact * Tucker Carlson * Sean Hannity * Rachel Maddow * Bloggers * PolitiFact Videos Campaigns * 2024 Elections Truth-o-Meter * True * Mostly True * Half True * Mostly False * False * Pants on Fire Promises * Biden Promise Tracker * Trump-O-Meter * Obameter * Latest Promises About Us * Our Process * Our Staff * En Español * Who pays for PolitiFact? * Advertise with Us * Suggest a Fact-check * Corrections and Updates * Newsletters Donate #### Follow us The Facts Newsletter Sign up English Español ### Get PolitiFact in your inbox. * Weekly Email Newsletter * Daily Email Newsletter Your Email Address Sign Up ![](\\" ![](\\" Elizabeth Warren stated on February 19, 2020 in the Las Vegas debate: “Mayor Bloomberg was busy blaming African Americans and Latinos for the housing crisis in 2008.” ![\\"true\\"](\\" mostly-false/6a6ef6075c162fdccf5eb960e683dcd1.jpg.\\") ![\\"barely- true\\"](\\" false.jpg\\") * Financial Regulation * Housing * Elizabeth Warren ![\\"Democratic](\\" Democratic presidential candidates Mike Bloomberg, left, and Elizabeth Warren gesture during a primary debate on Feb. 19, 2020, in Las Vegas. (AP) ![\\"Amy](\\" By Amy Sherman February 20, 2020 # Mike Bloomberg’s redlining remarks distorted by Elizabeth Warren #### If Your Time is short * Bloomberg in 2008 linked the financial crisis to pushback against redlining. * When Bloomberg brought up redlining, he made no mention of minorities but instead brought up poor neighborhoods. * Bloomberg also cited other factors for the financial crisis, including automated trading and inadequate regulation. See the sources for this fact-check U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., used the Democratic primary debate in Las Vegas to launch attacks against Mike Bloomberg, including his the billionaire’s rhetoric on the collapse of the housing market and financial crisis. \"When Mayor Bloomberg was busy blaming African Americans and Latinos for the housing crash of 2008, I was right here in Las Vegas literally just a few blocks down the street holding hearings on the banks that were taking away homes from millions of families,\" Warren said. Warren was referring to a statement Bloomberg made in 2008 in which he said that the end of redlining — a discriminatory practice in which banks refused certain applicants, often African Americans, loans to live in certain neighborhoods — contributed to the collapse of the housing market. But Bloomberg did not blame African Americans, Latinos or any minority group. What Bloomberg said about the causes of the financial crisis The Warren campaign pointed to what Bloomberg said at a forum in September 2008 at Georgetown University. At various points in the hourlong interview, Bloomberg spoke broadly about loose lending as a factor in the financial crisis. Bloomberg identified pressure by Congress to expand lending after the ban on redlining as one of those causes. The term \"redlining\" comes from when bankers would draw lines on maps indicating poorer neighborhoods where they would avoid offering mortgages. Those areas often include large minority populations. Bloomberg did not talk about the racial aspects of redlining or bring up any minority groups. Instead, he seemed to define redlining narrowly as excluding loan applicants in poor neighborhoods. And he described a system in which, by enacting a ban on redlining, Congress encouraged banks to give mortgages to people whether or not they could afford them. Here’s what Bloomberg said: \"It all started back when there was a lot of pressure on banks to make loans to everyone. Redlining, if you remember, was the term where banks took whole neighborhoods and said, ‘People in these neighborhoods are poor, they’re not going to be able to pay off their mortgages, tell your salesmen don’t go into those areas.’\" He continued: \"And then Congress got involved — local elected officials, as well — and said, ‘Oh that’s not fair, these people should be able to get credit.’ And once you started pushing in that direction, banks started making more and more loans where the credit of the person buying the house wasn’t as good as you would like.\" Warren’s argument is essentially that by citing the pushback against redlining as factor in the crisis, Bloomberg was blaming African Americans and Latinos. Bloomberg’s description of redlining may have sounded naive in that he didn’t explicitly acknowledge the discriminatory impact against racial minorities. But that’s a long way from blaming African Americans or Latinos for the housing collapse. In the same interview, Bloomberg cited several other factors that led to the crisis, but he made no mention at all of minorities. Bloomberg talked about how the mortgage crisis accelerated after mortgages were approved too easily for borrowers who didn’t have the means to repay them. \"There was pressure to open up the spigot and to sell mortgages to everyone,\" he said. #### Featured Fact-check ![](\\" ![](\\" JD Vance stated on August 16, 2024 in a post on X “Kamala Harris wants to give $25,000 to illegal aliens to buy American homes.” ![\\"true\\"](\\" false/33efdb6633e5e2fdc2d4e2f63383a1e0.jpg.\\") ![\\"false\\"](\\" false.jpg\\") By Madison Czopek • August 22, 2024 Bloomberg’s eight-minute answer also lobbed criticism at financial companies, saying that they didn’t understand the risks and volatility of their own products. He said that Bear Stearns, AIG and Lehman Brothers all had reputations for being very aggressive. \"They got themselves so far out there that when the mortgage market collapsed, they couldn’t value the things that they owned,\" he said. \"They didn’t know how many mortgages at the very bottom were going to be good.\" In 2011, Bloomberg repeated his opinion that Congress was to blame for the crisis, because it \"pushed the banks to loan to everybody.\" In this statement, he appeared to let bankers off the hook. \"It was not the banks that created the mortgage crisis,\" he said. \"It was, plain and simple, Congress who forced everybody to go and to give mortgages to people who were on the cusp. Now I’m not so sure that was terrible policy because a lot of those people who got homes still have them, and they wouldn’t have had them without that.\" _RELATED:_What caused crisis? No one thing Many experts have pushed back against the idea that eliminating redlining was a culprit for the financial meltdown. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission concluded that the 1977 law against redlining was \"not a significant factor in subprime lending or the crisis.\" When we contacted the Bloomberg campaign, the campaign pointed to other statements Bloomberg made in which he mentioned various factors. Speaking in London in October 2008, Bloomberg said that automated trading contributed to the market’s volatility. He said that the United States had an \"antiquated patchwork of regulatory bodies\" that lacked transparency. At that event, Bloomberg was asked to respond to a magazine article suggesting the origins of the subprime mortgage crisis could be traced to the Clinton administration’s anti-discrimination drive that cajoled banks to lend to people who were not creditworthy. Bloomberg said: \"I think it might have contributed a little bit, but what happened was fundamentally everybody was doing well. And when everybody’s doing well, we let our guard down, we take risks that we would not otherwise have taken, and what happened plain and simple is that the modeling said these mortgages were going to be paid off.\" Our ruling Warren said, \"Mayor Bloomberg was busy blaming African Americans and Latinos for the housing crisis in 2008.\" Warren makes it sound like Bloomberg made a clear cut statement blaming minorities for the collapse of the housing market, when that’s not the case. Bloomberg in September 2008 brought up redlining when he was asked about the causes of the financial crisis. Bloomberg said after politicians deemed the process of redlining unfair, banks and lenders extended loans to applicants with poor credit. But Bloomberg made no mention of race or minorities — he spoke about people in poor neighborhoods. Bloomberg faulted other factors in the crisis including inadequate regulation. Warren’s statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. We rate this statement Mostly False. #### Read About Our Process The Principles of the Truth-O-Meter ### Our Sources New York Times, Bush drive for home ownership fueled housing bubble, Dec. 21, 2008 Washington Post, Clinton pushes homeownership strategy, June 6, 1995 Los Angeles Times, Minorities’ Home Ownership Booms Under Clinton but Still Lags Whites’ May 31, 1999 New York Times, Bush drive for home ownership fueled housing bubble, Dec. 21, 2008 PolitiFact, What caused crisis? No one thing, Nov. 30, 2008 NBC News, Live Blog / Las Vegas Democratic debate live updates: Six candidates face off in Nevada, Feb. 19, 2020 YouTube, Mike Bloomberg at Georgetown University, Sept. 17, 2008 C-SPAN, Mike Bloomberg at Georgetown University, Sept. 17, 2008 Washington Post, Sanders steps up attacks on Bloomberg at candidates event in Nevada, Feb. 16, 2020 AP, Bloomberg once blamed end of \'redlining\' for 2008 collapse, Feb. 12, 2020 New York Times, Bloomberg Once Linked 2008 Crisis to End of Redlining Bias in Home Loans, Feb. 13, 2020 Mike Bloomberg campaign website, Housing Affordability and Homelessness, 2020 CityLab, What Mike Bloomberg Got Wrong About Redlining and the Financial Crisis, Feb. 13, 2020 Washington Post perspectives by Robert Kuttner, I wrote the law Bloomberg blames for the financial crisis. He’s wrong. Feb. 15, 2020 Federal Reserve, Federal Fair Lending Regulations and Statutes Fair Housing Act Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Report, Financial crisis inquiry report Politico, Bloomberg: \'Plain and simple,\' Congress caused the mortgage crisis, not the banks, Nov. 1, 2011 Mayor Mike Bloomberg, lecture on financial crisis in London, Oct. 6, 2008 The Spectator, Clinton Democrats are to blame for the credit crunch, Oct. 1, 2008 NYC, Mayor Bloomberg Outlines Principles To Guide Financial Industry Reform At The Securities Industry And Financial Markets Association Annual Meeting, Oct. 28, 2008 NYC, Mayor Bloomberg Announces Innovative Initiative To Combat Predatory Lending And Prevent Mortgage Foreclosures, Oct. 28, 2005 NYC, Mayor Bloomberg And Speaker Quinn Join The Center For Nyc Neighborhoods To Award New Grants To Help Prevent Mortgage Foreclosures, Dec. 11, 2008 NYC, Mayor Bloomberg Announces Public Campaign To Help More New Yorkers Get Free Foreclosure Prevention Services, June 11, 2009 Email interview, Josh Orton, Sen. Bernie Sanders campaign spokesman, Feb. 17, 2020 Email interview, Stu Loeser, Mike Bloomberg campaign spokesman, Feb. 17, 2020 Email interview, Ricardo Quinto, Center for Responsible Lending spokesman, Feb. 17, 2020 ## Browse the Truth-O-Meter ### More by Amy Sherman slide 4 to 6 of 15 ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/322c808c00e73c217d17772ddd5a0eb5.jpg\\") ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/8b142c91ebe468a84a192e6df2b7b994.jpg\\") Instagram posts stated on July 22, 2024 in an Instagram post: There are nine states “where Biden’s name can’t be removed and no one can be added. That’s over 130 electoral votes in the toilet.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Ranjan Jindal • July 23, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Kamala Harris stated on July 17, 2024 in a campaign video: \"Unlike Mike Pence, (JD) Vance said he would have carried out Trump\'s plan to overturn the 2020 election.\" ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" mostly-true.jpg\\") By Amy Sherman • July 18, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Kari Lake stated on July 16, 2024 in in a speech at RNC in Milwaukee: “Just last week, Ruben Gallego voted to let the millions of people who poured into our country illegally cast a ballot in this upcoming election.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Amy Sherman • July 17, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" JD Vance stated on August 25, 2024 in an interview on NBC\'s \"Meet the Press\": A zero-tolerance policy during the Trump administration \"led to less family separation than under Kamala Harris\' border policies.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Amy Sherman • September 4, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on August 26, 2024 in an interview with a podcaster: Vice President Kamala Harris “is a communist. … She is really a Marxist.” ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Amy Sherman • September 4, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Rick Scott stated on August 28, 2024 in a post on X: “This month alone, more than 16,000 non-citizens have been removed from the voter rolls in 3 states.” ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" true.jpg\\") By Samantha Putterman • August 29, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on August 23, 2024 in a speech in Las Vegas: “Kamala cast the tiebreaking vote to hire 87,000 new IRS agents to go after your tip income.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Amy Sherman • August 28, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Tim Walz stated on August 14, 2024 in a speech in California: Former President Donald Trump “cut overtime benefits for millions of workers.” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Amy Sherman • August 20, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Pete Buttigieg stated on August 11, 2024 in an interview on CNN State of the Union: Gov. Tim Walz delivered paid family leave in Minnesota but “Republicans are blocking” a Biden-Harris proposal. ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" mostly-true.jpg\\") By Amy Sherman • August 16, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on August 8, 2024 in a press conference: Says his Jan. 6, 2021, speech on the White House Ellipse drew the “same number of people,” as the 1963 March on Washington where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Louis Jacobson • August 9, 2024 ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/322c808c00e73c217d17772ddd5a0eb5.jpg\\") ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/8b142c91ebe468a84a192e6df2b7b994.jpg\\") Instagram posts stated on August 2, 2024 in a video: In Pompano Beach, Florida, Somali immigrants illegally in the U.S. were in line to get driver’s licenses and “all you need to vote is a driver\'s license.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu • August 7, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on July 27, 2024 in a rally in St. Cloud, Minnesota: During the 2020 Minnesota riots after George Floyd’s murder, Gov. Tim Walz didn’t call in the National Guard, “so, I sent in the National Guard to save Minneapolis.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Amy Sherman • August 7, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on August 3, 2024 in a rally in Atlanta: Kamala Harris “supports mandatory gun confiscation.” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Amy Sherman • August 7, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on July 24, 2024 in a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina: Kamala Harris “wants to defund the police.” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Amy Sherman • July 30, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on July 24, 2024 in a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina: Kamala Harris “supported abolishing ICE.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Amy Sherman • July 29, 2024 ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/322c808c00e73c217d17772ddd5a0eb5.jpg\\") ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/8b142c91ebe468a84a192e6df2b7b994.jpg\\") Instagram posts stated on July 22, 2024 in an Instagram post: There are nine states “where Biden’s name can’t be removed and no one can be added. That’s over 130 electoral votes in the toilet.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Ranjan Jindal • July 23, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Kamala Harris stated on July 17, 2024 in a campaign video: \"Unlike Mike Pence, (JD) Vance said he would have carried out Trump\'s plan to overturn the 2020 election.\" ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" mostly-true.jpg\\") By Amy Sherman • July 18, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Kari Lake stated on July 16, 2024 in in a speech at RNC in Milwaukee: “Just last week, Ruben Gallego voted to let the millions of people who poured into our country illegally cast a ballot in this upcoming election.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Amy Sherman • July 17, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" JD Vance stated on August 25, 2024 in an interview on NBC\'s \"Meet the Press\": A zero-tolerance policy during the Trump administration \"led to less family separation than under Kamala Harris\' border policies.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Amy Sherman • September 4, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on August 26, 2024 in an interview with a podcaster: Vice President Kamala Harris “is a communist. … She is really a Marxist.” ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Amy Sherman • September 4, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Rick Scott stated on August 28, 2024 in a post on X: “This month alone, more than 16,000 non-citizens have been removed from the voter rolls in 3 states.” ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" true.jpg\\") By Samantha Putterman • August 29, 2024 ### Mike Bloomberg’s redlining remarks distorted by Elizabeth Warren * ![](\\" ![](\\" Instagram posts stated on September 12, 2024 in an Instagram post: A video shows a body that Israel embedded with a bomb exploding during a Palestinian funeral procession. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Sofia Ahmed • September 13, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on September 11, 2024 in a post: “ESPN has fired Shannon Sharpe.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Gideon Hess • September 13, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Threads posts stated on September 12, 2024 in a post on Threads: An image shows Travis Kelce responding to Elon Musk X post that followed Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Madison Czopek • September 13, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Instagram posts stated on September 12, 2024 in an Instagram post: Former President Donald Trump admitted during the Sept. 10 presidential debate that he “blew up the Nord Stream pipeline.” ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Loreben Tuquero • September 13, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on September 10, 2024 in a Facebook post: Patron, Don Julio and Pink Whitney tequila recalled because they contained fecal matter. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Jeff Cercone • September 13, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Elissa Slotkin stated on September 11, 2024 in a TV ad: Mike Rogers supported “laws that could eliminate IVF and birth control.” ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" true.jpg\\") By Caleb McCullough • September 13, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Instagram posts stated on September 11, 2024 in an Instagram post: \"Debate moderators made the false claim to Donald Trump that there is nowhere in the United States where abortion is legal up until birth.\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Jeff Cercone • September 13, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on September 12, 2024 in a Facebook post: ABC News fired presidential debate moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis. ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Sofia Ahmed • September 13, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Yes on 4 stated on September 10, 2024 in a TV ad: Florida’s six-week abortion law has “no real exceptions. Not for her health. Not even for rape.” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Samantha Putterman • September 13, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on September 11, 2024 in una publicación en Facebook: Imagen muestra carnet del Partido Comunista de la vicepresidenta Kamala Harris. ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Maria Briceño • September 13, 2024 Load more ### Support independent fact-checking. Become a member! In a world of wild talk and fake news, help us stand up for the facts. 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Mayor Bloomberg was busy blaming African Americans and Latinos for the housing crisis in 2008