Oprah Winfrey Has Finally Commented on Calls for Her to Run for President
This year started with a bang, thanks to Oprah Winfrey’s inspiring Cecil B. DeMille Award acceptance speech at the Golden Globes. After fans calmed down, renewed calls for Winfrey to enter politics reached a fever pitch, with Oprah 2020 trending everywhere. Winfrey’s longtime partner, Stedman Graham, even hinted at the possibility, but now Winfrey herself has finally set the record straight once and for all, saying she will never run for office.
In an interview with InStyle, Winfrey was asked point-blank about the chances of her throwing her hat in the political ring, and she promptly shut down any speculation. “I’ve always felt very secure and confident with myself in knowing what I could do and what I could not,” she clarified. “And so it’s not something that interests me. I don’t have the DNA for it.”
Winfrey’s BFF Gayle King, who has been fielding questions from hopeful fans, told the queen of talk about a woman who stopped her in the airport to ask when the star would run. But while other people seem to love the idea, Winfrey knows that politics just wouldn’t be good for her, and it’s due, in part, to how she wants to face today’s divisive cultural landscape.
“I have taken a step back and a couple of notches down,” she admitted when asked about how she wades through today’s news stories, adding, “I try not to lean into the hysteria.”
“I’ve heard a lot of Twitter chatter where people have said, ‘Where are you? You should be speaking up on these things!’ But it makes no sense to speak when you cannot be heard,” Winfrey told InStyle, pointing to today’s culture of lambasting each other on Twitter as something she wants no part of.
“One hundred and forty characters — that is not how you want to make your mark in the world.”
What do you think of Oprah’s admission that politics is not for her? Let us know @BritandCo!
(photo via Paul Drinkwater/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)
