Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder to Criticize Warren Buffett and Bill Gates for Politicized Philanthropy Remarks from NLPC Chairman, Peter Flaherty
Omaha, NE
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May 05, 2023 01:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time
National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) is the sponsor of a Berkshire Hathaway shareholder proposal to separate the roles of Chairman and CEO. On April 21, we filed a proxy memo in support of our resolution, explaining why we believe the succession plan is inadequate and that the company should be less identified with Warren Buffett’s politics.
Here is the statement NLPC Chairman Peter Flaherty plans to make at the Berkshire annual meeting on Saturday, May 6 in Omaha, Nebraska:
I am Peter Flaherty, Chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center.
If we had an independent chair, the Company would be less identified with Mr. Buffett’s political activities.
He’s donated more than $100 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. As Bill Gates explained when the couple was still together, “although the foundation bears our names, basically half our resources have come from Warren Buffett.”
If “woke” culture is a disease, then philanthropy is the virus.
The Gates Foundation bankrolls the teaching of Critical Race Theory around the country, including that math is inherently racist.
The Gates Foundation offers a Gender Identity Toolbox, which asserts that gender is the result of “socially and culturally constructed ideas.”
This is a lie. Gender is not a cultural construct. It is a genetic and biological fact.
We know how much Bill Gates cares about children. He met and traveled with Jeffrey Epstein MANY times AFTER Epstein was convicted of sex crimes.
The Gates Foundation had a huge influence over the COVID response fiasco. Bill Gates defended China’s COVID policies and still discounts the possibility that the virus originated from a lab, even though U.S. intelligence agencies disagree.
The Gates Foundation may be the largest single donor to the “dark money” machine known as Arabella Associates which funds causes like defunding the police that are making American cities unlivable.
Money goes, too, to groups conducting threatening and vulgar protests at their homes of Supreme Court Justices.
Mr. Buffett has quietly funneled more than $4 billion to groups supporting abortion on demand through the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation.
That’s $4 billion, with a B. Advocacy disguised as philanthropy.
Bill Gates has lamented political polarization and even worried aloud about a civil war. But it is billionaires who are funding the most shrill and extreme activists who are tearing our country apart.
Ironically, Mr. Buffett has pointed out that corporate executives can make a lot of people mad when they insert themselves into controversy.
Anheuser-Busch is finding that out. It cannot renounce its Dylan Mulvaney transgender promotion because it is handcuffed by its longtime support for activists who would turn on them in a minute.
Anheuser-Busch gets a perfect grade on the Human Rights Campaign scorecard, as do Berkshire portfolio companies like Coca-Cola, Bank of America, and Apple.
Bank of America and Apple help bankroll this group, which wants biological men to compete in women’s sports.
Worse, it is currently pressuring state legislatures to allow sex change operations on children, and to keep their parents out of the decision.
Let’s revisit Coca-Cola, which I discussed at last year’s meeting. CEO James Quincey, a British citizen, tried to kill Georgia’s voter integrity law in 2021 by making inaccurate and inflammatory statements about it.
That’s the law that President Biden called “Jim Crow 2.0,” and which prompted Major League Baseball to move the All-Star game out of Atlanta.
Mr. Buffett jumped on the bandwagon, too, by signing a statement by corporate leaders suggesting that Republicans seek to restrict ballot access based on race.
Two years later, we can now evaluate that accusation.
Last year, an election was held in Georgia. Turnout was record breaking. According to an independent poll, 99% of voters said they had “no problem” casting ballots. 92% said the new law either had no impact on their ability to vote or made it easier.
James Quincey was wrong, and Mr. Buffett, so were you.
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To schedule an interview with Peter Flaherty, please contact Dan Rene at drene@nlpc.org or Jackie Jones at jackie@truthpr.com
Founded in 1991, NLPC promotes ethics in public life and government accountability through research, investigation, education, and legal action.
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