Philanthropist Melinda French Gates has endorsed President Joe Biden, citing concerns about President Donald Trump’s record on reproductive rights and how he has fostered a “hostile political environment” for female public servants.
Gates, the former wife of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, voiced her support for Biden in a CNN op-ed on Thursday.
“After women’s health was endangered, their safety compromised, and their basic freedoms taken away during President Trump’s first term, I am supporting Biden in this election and urge others to do the same,” she wrote.
Among the objections to Trump she cited in her op-ed were his role in the undoing of Roe v. Wade, his violent campaign rhetoric and his recent suggestion that states could surveil and prosecute pregnant women. “While Trump boasts about rolling back women’s rights, Biden understands that the future of our country depends on women,” she said.
Gates has long avoided interfering in elections, citing his charitable work with politicians of both parties. In 2015, when asked if he would support Bill Gates and Hillary Clinton, he told The 19th, “I don’t know if it really matters who we vote for. It doesn’t determine the outcome of the election. It matters how we work with the leaders that are there.”
Though unusual, her support for Biden is not a big surprise. She has been critical of the Trump administration’s policies and She has been outspoken about women’s rights around the world, and she denounced the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe in 2022, writing on LinkedIn that the country is taking a “major step backwards.”
After leaving the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation last month as part of her separation from her ex-husband, she immediately pledged to donate $1 billion to women’s rights groups in the US, pointing to the need to strengthen reproductive rights in the country.
