(CNN) Michael Bloomberg said at the height of the housing crisis in 2008 that getting rid of "redlining," the biased housing practice that stopped banks from providing mortgages in low-income, largely minority neighborhoods, was to blame for the collapse.

Bloomberg's presidential campaign said Thursday the former New York mayor's comments, which were made at a Georgetown University forum in 2008, were meant to make the point that "something bad - the financial crisis - followed something good, which is the fight against redlining."

"It all started back when there was a lot of pressure on banks to make loans to everyone," Bloomberg said at the time. "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.'"

Bloomberg added that issues with people being unable to pay their mortgages began when "Congress got involved, local officials as well."

Read More