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Within the CBS studio in New York Metropolis on Wednesday morning, Gayle King mentioned sarcastically: ‘I really like individuals attempting to inform him tips on how to spend his personal cash’ after Jeff Bezos was criticized for spending $5.5bn on his Blue Origin flight to area
Gayle King defended Jeff Bezos on Wednesday morning amid criticism of his $5.5billion area mission, saying he ought to be capable to spend his cash how he needs after agreeing with him that folks ‘do not perceive’ it’s a part of a grand plan to avoid wasting the planet and never a billionaire’s joyride.
Gayle interviewed Bezos and his brother Mark two hours after they returned to Earth following their 10-minute voyage into area, in Van Horn, Texas, on Tuesday. They sat outdoors the crew capsule then the pair gave Gayle a tour of it, letting her sit in one of many seats.
‘I do not suppose individuals actually perceive what this implies and why it is vital,’ Gayle mentioned in the beginning of the interview.
Bezos replied: ‘Yeah, you are proper Gayle. I do not suppose individuals perceive or most individuals do not.’
He went on to elucidate how his objective with Blue Origin is to ultimately transfer the entire polluting industries on Earth to area to permit them to proceed whereas preserving Earth’s setting, one thing he says has turn out to be misplaced within the criticism of the wildly costly flight.
Insisting he isn’t attempting to compete with Virgin boss Richard Branson or Elon Musk, Bezos mentioned: ‘It isn’t a contest….what we’ve got to do is construct an entire trade. You must have many corporations pulling collectively. They compete towards one another however there will be many winners.’
Shortly earlier than chatting with Gayle, Bezos, at a press convention in Van Horn, mentioned: ‘I wish to thank each Amazon worker and each Amazon buyer since you guys paid for all this.’
He was slammed for the remark by disgruntled Amazon employees, labor unions and shoppers who say it was a ‘tone deaf’ comment from the world’s richest man.
Gayle, within the CBS studio on Wednesday, defended him once more.
‘There’s been quite a lot of speak about all the cash that was spent and the way he spends his cash… I really like individuals attempting to inform him tips on how to spend his personal cash.’
She then fawned over Bezos’ ‘jaw dropping’ reward of $100million every to CNN’s Van Jones and Chef Jose Andres. The pair each run their very own charities and Bezos mentioned they’ll use the cash nevertheless they see match.
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Gayle had interviewed Bezos and his brother Mark in Van Horn, hours after they returned to Earth following their 10-minute voyage into area. They took her contained in the crew capsule which propelled them above Earth’s ambiance and advised her what it was like when the g-force pulled the pores and skin on their cheeks again on lift-off.
Gayle King sitting contained in the crew capsule on Wednesday with Mark Bezos, Jeff’s brother
Whereas a unprecedented sum of money for most individuals, $200million is lower than 1 p.c of Jeff Bezos’ fortune.
It’s also a fraction of what his ex-wife, MacKenzie, gave to charity in 2020 – $5billion. King and her co-hosts nonetheless praised Bezos for his philanthropic announcement.
‘Yesterday he additionally did one thing that was jaw dropping.
‘The braveness and civility award – that is getting misplaced on this coverage- he gave it to Van Jones and chef Jose Andres. It is to distribute to charities of their selection, he’s singling out individuals who he thinks are doing laborious work and doing it with civility.
‘It was jaw dropping. Van has achieved quite a lot of work with prison justice reform, we all know Chef Jose’s work…
‘I love Jeff Bezos’ level – you possibly can look to the long run and you’ll look to what’s occurring right here and do each and do good issues they usually actually are doing that,’ she mentioned.
Bezos had advised her he was attempting to maneuver air pollution to area and save Planet Earth along with his area mission.
‘If you consider it, we, humanity, is huge now. The earth is small, it is fragile. It feels huge to us however once you get into area and see the ambiance it is so skinny and fragile-looking.
‘This sounds fantastical however it is going to occur – we are able to transfer all heavy trade, all polluting trade, off of earth and function it in area. And that may’t occur right now it is going to take many a long time.
‘Will probably be like within the period of the Kitty Hawk, tiny little airplane that may fly 100ft. For those who advised someone sometime there could be a 787, it would appear unimaginable. We have been to all of the planets within the photo voltaic system with robotic probes, that is the great one. it is the one good one and we’ve got to guard it.
Gayle interviewing Mark and Jeff Bezos in Van Horn, Texas, on Wednesday, two hours after the flight
Jeff and his brother Mark joked round with Gayle on the Van Horn base throughout their interview
‘Mark and I are going to be useless earlier than this job is finished, it is not about us. It is about what Blue Origin can do, which is construct an area car that’s so operable, cheap and business that it turns into the infrastructure the subsequent era can use to take these huge steps.’
Gayle King on the billionaires summit Allen & Co summit in Solar Valley earlier this yr
The billionaire – value a staggering $214billion – went to area on Tuesday along with his brother Mark, astronaut Wally Funk, and Dutch teen Oliver Daemen whose non-public fairness father paid an undisclosed however seemingly exorbitant quantity for his seat.
Bezos’ mission has been extensively criticized.
Whereas he’s the world’s richest man, he isn’t probably the most philanthropic, and whereas he is spent $5.5billion fulfilling his private dream of going to area, Amazon has pushed again on employee calls for to unionize to enhance situations.
A latest Professional Publica report additionally identified that Bezos did not pay earnings tax for years.
Between 2006 and 2018, his private fortune grew by $127billion however he solely paid $1.4billion in taxes – a charge of 1.1 p.c. By comparability, the tax brackets for 2020 to 2021 go as excessive as 37 p.c for somebody incomes over $500,000 a yr, and begin at 10 p.c for the primary $10,000 of anybody’s wage.
On Tuesday, Bezos introduced a $100million award for ‘civility and braveness’ that was for use to higher issues on Earth by being donated to charity.
Bezos gave chef Jose Andres and CNN contributor Van Jones $100million every yesterday. Each males run non-profit organizations – Jose’s fights starvation and Van’s pushes for jail reform. Gayle praised Bezos for the ‘jaw dropping’ reward
He gave it to CNN contributor Van Jones, who runs a jail reform non-profit group and works on racial justice, and gave one other $100million to celeb chef Jose Andres whose charity World Central Kitchen fights starvation.
Many lauded him for the donations however others identified it’s a tiny fraction of what he spent on the area mission, and likewise pales compared to the $5billion his ex-wife MacKenzie gave to charities in 2020 alone.
MacKenzie, after being awarded greater than $30bn of their divorce and seeing that develop to a price of over $50bn because of rising Amazon inventory costs, joined the Giving Pledge in 2020. She, like different members together with Warren Buffett and Invoice and Melinda Gates, pledged to provide away half their web value. Jeff Bezos has not signed up.
The Teamsters Union, which tried to unionize Amazon employees however failed earlier this yr, was amongst these to criticize Bezos.
‘One a part of Bezos’s assertion is surprisingly correct – it’s Amazon employees who’ve constructed his fortune – but when Jeff Bezos actually needs to thank Amazon employees, he ought to hearken to their calls for for safer working situations, a voice within the office, and good, household sustaining center class jobs—reasonably than perpetuating a extremely exploitative enterprise mannequin of excessive tempo of labor, excessive charges of damage, excessive charges of turnover and low pay,’ Randy Korgan, Teamsters Nationwide Director for Amazon, advised DailyMail.com.
Others requested why he was freely giving $200million in philanthropic rewards as a substitute of accelerating Amazon employees’ pay, which begins at $15 an hour, twice the federal minimal wage, a reality Bezos says proves he does hearken to them.
Bernie Sanders and AOC have been amongst those that slammed him for the touch upon Tuesday.
‘Am I speculated to be impressed {that a} billionaire went to area whereas he is paid zero in federal earnings taxes some years and the employees at his firm wrestle to afford their medical payments, lease, and meals for his or her children?’ the Vermont senator tweeted.
‘Nope. It is time to put money into working individuals right here on Earth.’
Fellow Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts additionally took purpose at Bezos over his lack of tax funds, retweeting a put up quoting the billionaire’s feedback in the course of the press convention.
‘Jeff Bezos forgot to thank all of the hardworking People who truly paid taxes to maintain this nation operating whereas he and Amazon paid nothing,’ she tweeted.
In a follow-up tweet, Warren urged People to signal her three-step plan to vary the nation’s tax legal guidelines.
‘I am pushing for 3 adjustments to our tax legal guidelines—a #WealthTax, a Actual Company Income Tax, and long-term funding for the IRS to go after rich tax cheats—to make billionaires & mega-corporations begin paying their justifiable share,’ she wrote.
Final month, a ProPublica report revealed that Bezos paid nothing in federal earnings taxes in 2007 and 2011.
Confidential tax paperwork filed with the Inner Income Service, seen by the publication, confirmed the world’s richest man prevented paying a dime these years by citing dropping greater than he earned.
As a substitute, he reportedly claimed and acquired a $4,000 tax credit score for kids. This credit score is meant to be for households that earn lower than $100,000.
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