oprah ‘mulls’ white house run
Actress and TV talk show host Oprah Winfrey became the first Black woman to be awarded a Golden Globe for lifetime achievement in Beverly Hills, California, on Sunday. Winfrey, who delivered an impassioned speech in support of those who have exposed sexual misconduct in Hollywood and beyond, is actively thinking about running for president in 2020, two of her close friends told CNN later. —
new york — Could Oprah Winfrey run for president and beat Donald Trump? Hollywood, liberals and ardent fans are abuzz with speculation that the billionaire chat show queen is harbouring White House ambitions after an impassioned Golden Globes speech.
Winfrey had barely finished calling for a ‘new day’ following a sexual harassment watershed, before calls snowballed for one of America’s most famous women, a selfmade tycoon born into poverty, to run for the highest office in the free world.
Hollywood’s loathing of Trump and bafflement that a crass-talking reality star with no previous government experience could win the presidency have fueled talk of well, why not another television star, only one with the ‘right’ politics?
While Winfrey herself has never stated any cut-and-dried desire to run for office — reportedly saying “I don’t — I don’t” backstage at the Globes when asked if she planned to run — her longtime partner suggested that she could be persuaded.
“It’s up to the people,” Stedman Graham was quoted as telling The Los Angeles Times. “She would absolutely do it.”
“She launched a rocket tonight. I want her to run for president,” Meryl Streep told The Washington Post. “I don’t think she had any intention (of declaring). But now she doesn’t have a choice.”
CNN quoted two anonymous “close friends” as saying Winfrey was “actively thinking” about a presidential run although stressing that she had not made up her mind. If the speculation is wishful thinking, Winfrey’s fame and wealth, extraordinary personal story overcoming poverty, teenage rape and pregnancy to build a $2.6 billion fortune and Oscar-nominated acting career, would stack up nicely in her favour. “I slept on it and came to the conclusion that the Oprah thing isn’t that crazy,” tweeted Dan Pfeiffer, a former senior advisor to Barack Obama, the president whom Winfrey was credited with helping to elect in 2008. —