Following Oprah Winfrey’s rousing speech at the Golden Globes earlier this month, her fans became inspired over the idea of Oprah challenging Donald Trump for the presidency. The #Oprah2020 hashtag trended, and the frenzy made it seem as Winfrey’s presidential bid was as good as done.
But wait. Winfrey remained quiet. Was she even interested?
It turns out Oprah addressed the issue before she accepted the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globes. InStyle magazine spent time with Oprah for a cover story prior to the award show and queried her over the possibility of becoming the first woman president.
“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,” Oprah told the publication. “I don’t have the DNA for it.”
Winfrey says even her BFF Gayle King had been nudging her.
“Gayle — 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?’ 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.”
In accepting the DeMille lifetime achievement award, Winfrey touched on a number of issues, including the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, her career as a broadcaster and actress, racial injustice in the era of Jim Crow era and in the present, and freedom of the press.
“So I want all the girls watching here now to know that a new day is on the horizon,” Winfrey said toward the conclusion of the speech. “And when that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are right here in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say, ‘Me too’ again.”
Social media lit up with the reaction of politicians, celebrities and fans, many of whom wondering out loud if Winfrey was preparing for 2020.
Read the full text of the speech here.
