Advertisement

Oprah for president? 'I don't have the DNA for it,' she tells magazine

The Wrap
January 25, 2018 at 4:32PM
In this Jan. 7, 2018, file photo, Oprah Winfrey poses in the press room with the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the 75th annual Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif. Winfrey has visited the grave of a black Alabama woman whose rape by six white men in 1944 drew national attention and whose story was highlighted in Winfrey's recent Golden Globes speech. Winfrey said in an Instagram post that on assignment for "60 Minutes," she ended up in the town of Abbeville, Ala., where Recy Taylor suffered
In this Jan. 7, 2018, file photo, Oprah Winfrey poses in the press room with the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the 75th annual Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif. Winfrey has visited the grave of a black Alabama woman whose rape by six white men in 1944 drew national attention and whose story was highlighted in Winfrey's recent Golden Globes speech. Winfrey said in an Instagram post that on assignment for "60 Minutes," she ended up in the town of Abbeville, Ala., where Recy Taylor suffered injustice, endured and recently died. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File) (Jordan Strauss/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Oprah Winfrey dismissed the idea of a potential presidential run in an interview given weeks before her rousing speech at the Golden Globes.

"I've always felt very secure and confident with myself in knowing what I could do and what I could not. And so it's not something that interests me," Winfrey told InStyle editor-in-chief Laura Brown in an interview published Thursday. "I don't have the DNA for it."

"Gayle [King] — who knows me as well as I know myself practically — has been calling me regularly and texting me things, like a woman in the airport saying, 'When's Oprah going to run?'" Winfrey added. "So Gayle sends me these things, and then she'll go, 'I know, I know, I know! It wouldn't be good for you — it would be good for everyone else.' I met with someone the other day who said that they would help me with a campaign. That's not for me."

Winfrey gave the interview three weeks before she accepted the Cecil B. DeMille Award and had the crowd of Hollywood elite on their feet.

When Globes host Seth Meyers had already made a reference to her running with Tom Hanks as her vice president during his opening monologue, Winfrey was seen laughing off the idea of a bid.

But her partner Stedman Graham chimed in to say, "It's up to the people. She would absolutely do it."

Advertisement
Advertisement

Ever since, the idea of an Oprah presidential campaign has been gaining momentum, with President Trump himself telling reporters, "Yeah, I'll beat Oprah. Oprah would be a lot of fun," adding that he knows her "very well." "I like Oprah. I don't think she's going to run," Trump said.

about the writer

about the writer

The Wrap

More from No Section

See More

A man impersonating a police officer shot and killed Minnesota state legislator Melissa Hortman and her husband at their home in what Gov. Tim Walz called ''targeted political violence.''

card image
Advertisement
Advertisement

To leave a comment, .

Advertisement