Gates says his meetings with sex offender Epstein were a mistake
BILL GATES has said an Elon Musk-owned Twitter “could be worse” and that meeting the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was a mistake.
In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the Microsoft co-founder also said he maintains “a sense of humour” about the conspiracy theories that have led to people shouting at him on the street.
Mr Gates, whose massive donations to Covid-19 research have made him a target of bizarre claims, said: “In some ways, you almost have to laugh because it’s so crazy.
“I mean, do I really want to track people?
“I spend billions on vaccines, I don’t make money on vaccines; vaccines save lives, they don’t cause deaths. So I’ve been out in public and some people yell at me that I’m tracking them, and that’s an awful thing.”
Asked about whether such unfounded theories could flourish on Twitter after Mr Musk’s planned purchase of the social media platform, Mr Gates said: “I guess it’s possible Twitter could be worse, but it also could be better.” The tech pioneer said there is no need for his fellow billionaire, who has tweeted insults about him, “to be nice to me”. Mr Gates has been succeeded by Mr Musk as the world’s richest person. In response to Mr Musk’s claims that he has bet against Tesla stock, Mr Gates said it had “nothing to do with climate change”.
“The popularity of electric cars will lead to more competition for selling those cars, so there’s a difference between electric cars being adopted, and companies becoming infinitely valuable,” he said.
Mr Gates also addressed his past meetings with Jeffrey Epstein after his ex-wife said she knew the late US financier Jeffrey Epstein was “evil”.
“I made a mistake meeting with Jeffrey Epstein, you know, maybe her instincts on that were keener than mine.
“Any meeting I had with him could be viewed as almost condoning his evil behaviour, so that was a mistake.”