OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Billionaire Warren Buffett said Wednesday that his decision to cut the Gates Foundation out of his charitable giving is more about believing his three kids are ready to handle giving away his entire fortune than it is about Bill Gates ' ties to convicted **** offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Buffett told CNBC that Gates' **** ociation with Epstein was "distasteful," but the 95-year-old investor suggested that Gates' actions weren't much different from mistakes he himself had made over the years in hiring the wrong person or in choosing friends.
"No one bats a thousand in the business of choosing people," Buffett said on CNBC.
Buffett said he "read a great deal since Jan. 1 in terms of what happened with Bill and Epstein. And I have read his remarks to Congress given under oath, and I read the cross-examination." He noted that Gates eventually ended his relationship with Epstein.
Buffett said Gates wasn't surprised by the decision Buffett announced Tuesday to eventually donate all the rest of his $140 billion of Berkshire Hathaway stock to foundations **** ociated with his family and his three children, Howard, Susie and Peter. Gates flew to Omaha a few weeks ago and spent several hours talking with Buffett. The two hadn't spoken much since before additional details about Gates and Epstein started to come out when the federal government began releasing files from the Epstein investigation.