Warren Buffett says Bill Gates Epstein ties were distasteful, but everybody makes mistakes: Life goes on

Warren Buffett said Bill Gates’ ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were “distasteful” – but added that everybody makes mistakes and said he recently met with the Microsoft founder before he ended donations to the Gates Foundation.The 95-year-old chairman of Berkshire Hathaway told CNBC that he has been following Gates’ sworn testimony to Congress this year, which revealed Epstein had learned of Gates’ affairs with two Russian women and tried to use the infidelity to potentially blackmail him into reconnecting.“While it’s distasteful, while he made mistakes, I’ve made mistakes in hiring all kinds of people or choosing friends and then finding out later that one way or another, they weren’t what I thought they were,” Buffett said.“So I found nothing in there that was beyond what I can picture myself doing.He ended it and I’ve had situations where I’ve made mistakes … but life goes on.

No one bats a thousand in the business of choosing people.”The “Oracle of Omaha,” who has been friends with Gates for about 35 years, on Tuesday announced his donations of $6 billion in Berkshire shares this year – notably excluding the Gates Foundation and ending a two-decade philanthropic partnership with the tech billionaire.“I reevaluated my whole situation,” Buffett said.“What happened was that I gave the Gates Foundation a great deal of money.

I thought that was a good decision.I think it was a decent decision, but I did not think my kids were in any way ready to give away vast sums of money.”He directed all of his annual mid-year donations this year to four family-linked foundations run by his daughter Susie and sons Howard and Peter.The Gates Foundation – founded by Gates and his ex-wife Melinda French Gates – was the largest recipient of Buffett’s annual donations for years, receiving more than $47 billion worth of Berkshire stock since 2006.In his testimony last month, Gates told Congress he was introduced to Eps...