Billionaire ‘philanthropist’ Bill Gates attempted and failed to downplay his relationship with the late pedophile sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, claiming they were just dinner buddies.
During an interview broadcast on Australia’s ABC 7.3, host Sarah Ferguson noted “one of the issues that dogged” Gates’ relationship with ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, was Jeffrey Epstein.
Ferguson asked, “Do you regret the relationship that you maintained with him against Melinda’s advice and wishes?”
Gates, seemingly defensive from the outset, told Ferguson she was going “way back in time.”
“I will say for the over a 100th time, yeah, I shouldn’t have had dinners with him,” Gates said.
The host informed Gates that “Epstein had a way of sexually compromising” people.
“Is that what Melinda was warning you about?” Ferguson asked.
“No, I mean, no, I had dinner with him, and that’s all,” Gates squirmed.
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Ferguson then asked Gates if he regrets the relationship with the late pedophile.
“That I had dinner with him,” Gates said, implying the relationship was simply dinner.
Bill Gates then rejected the notion that Gates’ foundation and Jeffrey Epstein were connected.
“There never was any relationship of any kind,” he said.
Gates was confronted by PBS NewsHour anchor Judy Woodruff in 2021 about Epstein and received similar answers.
Woodruff asked Gates about the “number of meetings” he had with the shady billionaire, who was found guilty of soliciting prostitution from minors.
“What did you know about him when you were meeting with him, as you said yourself, in the hopes of raising money?” Woodruff asked.
“You know, I had dinners with him. I regret doing that,” Gates responded. “He had relationships with people he said, you know, would give to global health, which is an interest I have. You know, not nearly enough philanthropy goes in that direction.”
“Those meetings were a mistake. They didn’t result in what he purported, and I cut them off. You know, that goes back a long time ago now, so there’s nothing new on that,” Gates added.
Woodruff continued to press Gates, asking him what he did when he “found out about his background.”
“You know, I’ve said I regretted having those dinners,” Gates told Woodruff. “And there’s nothing – absolutely nothing new on that.”
In a previous interview with NBC News, Gates said he had met with Epstein to “raise money for global health.”
“I didn’t realize that the meeting with him almost downplayed the incredibly awful things he did,” Gates said. “I’ve learned more about that over time, but I add that to the list of big mistakes.”
Gates’ former wife said she made it “clear” to the Microsoft founder that she “did not like that he’d had meetings with Jeffrey Epstein.”
“I wanted to see who this man was, and I regretted it from the second I stepped in the door,” she told CBS in 2021. “He was abhorrent. He was evil personified. I had nightmares about it afterwards. My heart breaks for these young women.”
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