Bill Gates Squirms, Then Deflects as Interviewer Presses Him on Connection to Jeffrey Epstein: 'He's Dead, So ...'
Displaying all the aplomb of a first-grader in the principal’s office, Bill Gates grew defensive in a recent interview when asked about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
A report by The Daily Beast earlier this year said that although some contact between the two men had been widely reported after Epstein’s suicide in a Manhattan jail in 2019, the two met often between 2011 and 2014.
Judy Woodruff of PBS honed in on the relationship when she interviewed Gates, wondering what a billionaire could have wanted from a convicted pedophile.
WATCH: @JudyWoodruff asks Bill Gates about his meetings with Jeffrey Epstein a decade ago, after Epstein had already been convicted of sex crimes.
“Those meetings were a mistake,” Gates says. “They didn’t result in what he purported and I cut them off.” pic.twitter.com/7gg9osnzpu
— PBS NewsHour (@NewsHour) September 21, 2021
“You know, I had dinners with him. I regret doing that,” Gates said. “He had relationships with people he said, you know, [who] would give to global health, which is an interest I have. … Not nearly enough philanthropy goes in that direction.”
“Those meetings were a mistake,” he added. “They didn’t result in what he purported, and I cut them off. You know, that goes back a long time ago now. There’s — so there’s nothing new on that.”
Woodruff said that the two met over several years as Gates shook his head at the comment. She then asked what Gates did when he learned about Epstein’s background.
“You know, I said I regretted having those dinners, and there’s nothing, absolutely nothing new on that,” Gates said.
“Is there a lesson for you, for anyone else, looking at this?” Woodruff then asked.
“Well, he’s dead, so … you know, in general, you always have to be careful,” Gates said.
Twitter had a few things to say about the segment.
Gates keeps giving this line he hung out with Epstein multiple times because Epstein had access to donors for public health and not once does anyone ask the obvious Q of: “who specifically is this person? Who are these people who BILL GATES cannot, on his own, get in touch with?” https://t.co/zysio6dWPl
— Adam H. Johnson (@adamjohnsonNYC) September 22, 2021
Epstein was an admitted eugenicist and obsessively talked about population control!
And Bill Gates shared his interest in “global health”!?
— Luke Rudkowski (@Lukewearechange) September 22, 2021
Gates closed the door on the Epstein segment by trying to turn the conversation to more comfortable ground.
“And you know, the, you know, I’m — I’m very proud of what we’ve done in philanthropy and very proud of the work of the foundation. You know, that’s –that’s what I get up every day and focus on.”
The connection between Gates and Epstein has been plumbed by multiple media outlets.
The New York Times has quoted what it said was a Gates email from 2011 as saying Epstein’s “lifestyle is very different and kind of intriguing although it would not work for me.”
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