Oprah Winfrey’s stirring Golden Globes speech prompts talk of White House run
Los Angeles: Oprah Winfrey brought the Golden Globes audience to their feet with a powerful speech as she accepted the Cecil B DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award on Sunday night, prompting speculation about a run for the White House.
The notion of the talkshow host and entrepreneur running for president against Donald Trump in 2020 was raised by the awards’ host, Seth Meyers, in his opening monologue.
Celebrities reaction Celebrities used Twitter to urge Winfrey to run. The comedian Sarah Silverman tweeted “Oprah/ Michelle 2020” while the actor Leslie Odom Jr wrote: “She’s running. A new day is on the way.” After an introduction by Reese Witherspoon, the actor and philanthropist took to the stage to address racial injustice and sexual abuse on an evening in which women wore black to show support for the #MeToo movement. Ms Winfrey began by discussing Sidney Poitier, who won the 1964 Academy Award for best actor and, in doing so, became the first black man to win an Oscar.
Eighteen years later, he received the Cecil B DeMille award at the 1982 Golden Globes.
Ms Winfrey said: “In 1982, Sidney received the Cecil B DeMille award right here at the Golden Globes and it is not lost on me that at this moment, there are some little girls watching as I become the first black woman to be given this same award.
“It is an honour – it is an honour and it is a privilege to share the evening with all of them and also with the incredible men and women who have inspired me, who challenged me, who sustained me and made my journey to this stage possible.”
She continued: “I want to thank the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. We know the press is under siege these days. We also know it’s the insatiable dedication to uncovering the absolute truth that keeps us from turning a blind eye to corruption and to injustice.” Addressing victims of sexual abuse, Ms Winfrey noted that the recent revelations about Hollywood’s endemic sexual misconduct go well beyond the entertainment industry, noting that the issue “transcends any culture, geography, race, religion, politics, or workplace”.
She went on: “So I want tonight to express gratitude to all the women who have endured years of abuse and assault because they, like my mother, had children to feed and bills to pay and dreams to pursue. “They’re the women whose names we’ll never know. They are domestic workers and farm workers. “They are working in factories and they work in restaurants and they’re in academia, engineering, medicine and science.
“They’re part of the world of tech and politics and business. They’re our athletes in the Olympics and they’re our soldiers in the military.”