Episode Details

In his August 2021 interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Bill Gates described his association with Jeffrey Epstein as a serious mistake and said the relationship grew out of Epstein’s claims that he could help raise enormous sums of money for global-health philanthropy. Gates said he had “several dinners” with Epstein after first meeting him in 2011, despite Epstein already having been convicted of soliciting a minor. Gates told Cooper that once it became clear Epstein’s promised philanthropic connections were not producing anything, he ended the relationship. He acknowledged that simply spending time with Epstein had given the convicted sex offender credibility and called that decision a “huge mistake.” Cooper raised the issue in the context of reports that Melinda French Gates had been deeply troubled by her husband’s dealings with Epstein and that the relationship had become one of several issues surrounding the Gates marriage. Gates did not offer a detailed explanation for why repeated meetings were necessary beyond the proposed philanthropy and instead emphasized regret over having associated with Epstein at all.

Gates gave a similar but noticeably terse account during a September 2021 PBS NewsHour interview with Judy Woodruff. When Woodruff asked what Gates knew about Epstein’s criminal background while meeting with him, Gates said Epstein claimed to know wealthy people who might contribute to global health initiatives and again characterized the meetings as a mistake that produced nothing. Woodruff pressed him on reports that the relationship involved multiple meetings over several years and specifically asked what Gates did after learning about Epstein’s background. Gates largely repeated that he regretted the dinners and said there was “absolutely nothing new” to add. When Woodruff asked what lesson he took from the experience, Gates responded that Epstein was dead and said people generally had to be careful before pivoting back to the accomplishments of the Gates Foundation. Taken together, the Cooper and PBS interviews presented the same basic explanation: Gates said Epstein was useful to him only as a potential conduit to philanthropic money, admitted that associating with him was a major error, but offered relatively little detail about why the relationship continued as long as it did after Epstein’s sex-offense conviction was already public.


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