YES SHE CAN!
Oprah stirs buzz of Prez run, and pols say ...
BRING IT ON. The White House says it’s not afraid of Oprah Winfrey potentially taking on President Trump in 2020.
“We welcome the challenge, whether it be Oprah Winfrey or anybody else,” deputy White House press secretary Hogan Gidley told reporters aboard Air Force One on Monday.
“Regardless of who’s on the ballot, regardless who decides to run against this President, they are going to have to face a President who has record-setting achievements in record-setting time.”
Winfrey got political tongues wagging Sunday night with a rousing five-minute speech at the Golden Globes calling for the end of women being victims of harassment and saying a “new day is on the horizon.”
Social media quickly erupted, calling on the TV legend to announce her presidential run with many using the hashtag “Oprah2020.”
Gidley wouldn’t give the White House reaction to the speech or say whether Trump watched it.
But Ivanka Trump certainly did, and she liked what she saw, according to a gushing tweet she posted Monday night.
“Just saw @Oprah’s empowering & inspiring speech at last night’s #GoldenGlobes,” she wrote. “Let’s all come together, women & men, & say #TIMESUP! #United”
Sources close to Winfrey told CNN some confidants have been urging the former talk show host to run for office.
Conversations about a potential presidential run were brought up months ago, one of the sources said, adding that Winfrey, 63, hasn’t yet made a decision about running.
But in June, Winfrey said she had no interest in running for public office.
“I will never run for public office,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “That’s a pretty definitive thing.”
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who has been mentioned as a 2020 presidential candidate herself, praised Winfrey’s speech as “powerful.”
“I’m really grateful to what she said, and I think
she’s a real leader and I think her voice is powerful and important,” Gillibrand told Spectrum News. “Whatever she wants to do, she should do.”
Praise for the entertainment titan has come in the past from pols on both sides of the aisle — even Donald Trump himself. When Trump was considering a presidential run in 2000, he hailed Winfrey as a potential running mate (Daily News cover, facing page), saying, “She’s popular, she’s brilliant, she’s a wonderful woman.”
This time around, a host of pollsters, Democratic consultants and political scientists said she could be a formidable candidate.
“I’ve told people that after Trump, I take everyone seriously,” said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center of Politics.
Added Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College poll: “The question is not her effectiveness. The question becomes does the Democratic Party down the road go in the direction of someone who is not a seasoned politician?”
Phil Singer, a Democratic operative who worked on Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential primary campaign, said: “I don’t think it’s farfetched at all. I’ve heard crazier names mentioned, some of whom are already in politics.”
Singer said a potential Winfrey candidacy would have to be assessed through two lenses — as a candidate, and as to whether she would be ready to be the leader of the free world.
“As a candidate, it’s a no-brainer,” Singer said. But becoming President with no governmental experience “is not something to be sneezed at, particularly given the current occupant of the White House,” he said.
Peter Kauffmann, a Democratic consultant who is a past deputy press secretary for the Democratic National Committee, said Winfrey has a lot of characteristics that would make her an attractive candidate, but he also mentioned her lack of governmental experience.
Kauffmann called Winfrey a self-made successful businesswoman who has the ability to rally people and get them excited, “which is something we really need.”
“She’s a person from the celebrity sphere that is everything Trump’s not,” he added. “She has the smarts to be a policy wonk, but she hasn’t demonstrated the 20-year commitment to sitting down and discussing how government can better people’s lives.”
And then there’s the question about whether the country after Trump will be looking for another celebrity candidate — even one who has such a widespread and loyal fan base as Winfrey.
“We don’t know if (Trump’s election) is a new normal or an aberration, so therefore we don’t know what the next chapter will be like,” Miringoff said.
Sabato added that “generally speaking, when Americans replace a President they pick someone very different — but it doesn’t have to be that way.”
Pollster Jefrey Pollock, who worked for super PACs helping Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and President Barack Obama’s reelection in 2012, was skeptical about Winfrey.
“Democratic primary voters are traditionally more interested in experience,” he said.
On the other side of the aisle, GOP pollster John McLaughlin, who worked on Trump’s campaign, said Winfrey could be a formidable candidate, but he still believes Trump would beat her.