Two unexpected revelations in Warren Buffett’s CNBC interview

1. 00:00 – Buffett on his decision to stop donations to Gates Foundation

BECKY QUICK: Warren, first of all, thank you for sitting down and talking with us today. I appreciate it.

WARREN BUFFETT: It’s always good to sit down. (Laughs)

BECKY QUICK: Yes, I find the same thing.

The last time we sat down and spoke with you, or I guess it was two times ago in March when we sat down with you to talk about what you were doing with your charitable giving, you said that you were going to be watching and waiting, that you were kind of waiting to see what came out about Bill Gates and the Epstein files and what had happened.

You said you hadn’t determined what you were going to do.

Today you put out a release saying that you will be increasing the amount of money that you give to the Susan Thomas Buffett Foundation, your three children’s foundations, but there will be nothing given right now to the Gates Foundation. Is that your decision?

WARREN BUFFETT: That’s correct. That’s correct.

But — but in interpreting that, I would point out that I’ve read a great deal since January 1 in terms of what happened with Bill and Epstein, and I’ve read his remarks to Congress given under oath, and I’ve read cross examination, and while it’s distasteful, while he made mistakes, I made mistakes in hiring all kinds of people or choosing friends, and then finding out later that they — that one way or another, they weren’t what I thought they were.

And so I found nothing in there that that was beyond what I could see — I could picture myself doing.

And, you know, he ended it. And I’ve had situations where I made mistakes about people or people may have felt they made mistakes about me.

But they — you know — life goes on and — and no one — no one bats 1.000 in the business of choosing people,

BECKY QUICK:  You’re talking about hiring decisions, maybe who you’re associating yourself with, and there were certainly some questionable decisions on that that came up in the release of these files, but there was also other, you know, personal information.

WARREN BUFFETT: Yeah. No. He — which he admitted to.

BECKY QUICK: Yeah.

WARREN BUFFETT: Yeah. No. And there again, I would say that, you know, I would — I’ve known some pretty wonderful people, and I still know some wonderful people.

I don’t think they’ve made every decision correctly.

BECKY QUICK: So why, if that’s your opinion on it, why are you no longer giving money to the Gates Foundation?

WARREN BUFFETT: Well, I reevaluated my whole situation.

It’s just like I’ve been doing since I was in my 20s, and we’d gotten married, Susie and I, and we didn’t really have any money, but we did know that we intended to live fine, and we intended to have a family, and — but we did not have aspirations of, you know, having six houses or a 500-foot yacht or anything of the sort.

So even then, we talked about what we would do philanthropically. But my idea, and conviction, was that I would compound money at a better rate than…