Oprah Shuts Down Presidential Rumors: ‘Not Something That Interests Me’

poses in the press room during The 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 7, 2018 in Beverly Hills, California.
BEVERLY HILLS, CA - JANUARY 07: Oprah Winfrey poses with the Cecil B. DeMille Award in the press room during The 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 7, 2018 in Beverly Hills, Calif... BEVERLY HILLS, CA - JANUARY 07: Oprah Winfrey poses with the Cecil B. DeMille Award in the press room during The 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 7, 2018 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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Media mogul Oprah Winfrey put an end to rumors that she could run for president in an interview with InStyle published Thursday, saying “it’s not something that interests me.”

“How do you feel when people say, ‘Oprah 2020’?” InStyle editor-in-chief Laura Brown asked during an interview Winfrey did with the magazine.

“I actually saw a mug the other day … I thought it was a cute mug,” she replied. “All you need is a mug and some campaign literature and a T-shirt.”

“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. I don’t have the DNA for it.”

“[CBS This Morning anchor] 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?’” she continued. “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 hinted in an interview in March last year that she was considering a political career, and speculation increased after she delivered an energetic tribute to the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements at the Golden Globes. Her partner Stedman Graham told the Los Angeles Times at the time: “It’s up to the people. She would absolutely do it.”

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  1. “All you need is a mug and some campaign literature and a T-shirt.”

    Statements like that just make me cringe, considering how much time I spend with my candidates honing and refining their specific policy issues and developing larger messaging frameworks…for freaking small town city council positions! (My entire county has about 130K voters, and probably a dozen municipalities that call themselves :“cities”).

    Because running for office DOES require more than a coffee mug and some campaign literature and T-shirts.

  2. I love how she let it roll around for a while. It stimulated a lot of conversation on BOTH sides. Interesting.

  3. Yes it does. However, it DOESN’T require more for the media to play it 24-7 and speculate endlessly. I think that’s what she was trying to say.

  4. I hope people can come in off the ledge now

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