Oprah Winfrey For President: Five Times The Media Mogul Shot The Idea Down

Oprah Winfrey delivered an inspirational speech at the 2018 Golden Globe Awards, but that doesn’t mean the media mogul is planning to give a campaign speech anytime soon. On the heels of Oprah’s powerful speech as she accepted the Globes’ prestigious Cecil B. DeMille Award—a speech in which she declared that “a new day is on the horizon” for women—rumors began swirling that she is considering a 2020 presidential run. Two Oprah insiders have even confirmed that the star’s confidants have been urging her to run for the country’s highest political office and that she is “actively considering” the possibility, according to CNN Money.

There’s just one problem. Oprah Winfrey has gone on record—time after time after time—to vow that she will never, ever run for a political office.

As recently as the 2016 presidential race, Oprah shot down Donald Trump’s offer to be his running mate, an offer that has been on the table since 1999. When Trump told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that Oprah Winfrey would be his dream vice presidential pick and that if they ran together they would “win easily,” Winfrey made it clear she was Team Hillary. Oprah told late night host Jimmy Kimmel that her response to a formal offer from Trump would be, “Donald, I’m with her!”

At the time, Oprah also shot down the suggestion that she could beat Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in the presidential race.

“I do not believe that,” Winfrey said.

“And believe me, it’s the one thing that I know for sure, sure, sure, is I will never run for office.”

But Oprah Winfrey did admit that after the most recent election she feels as she would be qualified to run for president, despite the fact that she has zero experience in politics.

“For many years, I used to think — until this election year, I thought, ‘Wow I have no qualifications to run,'” Winfrey told Kimmel. “I’m feeling pretty qualified. After this year, I’m feeling really qualified.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aqSxnw0ZpM

Still, that doesn’t mean Winfrey would actually consider running for public office. In a more recent interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Oprah once again stated that a presidential run isn’t in the cards for her.

“Never!” Winfrey told the late-night host in January 2017. “No, it’s not my thing!”

Last fall, after Oprah tweeted a New York Post article that said she was the “Democrats’ Best Hope for 2020,” she quickly shot down speculation that there was a bigger meaning to the retweet.

“She was just thanking the reporter, she is not running for office,” Oprah’s publicist told The Wrap.

In addition, during a podcast with the Hollywood Reporter last summer, Oprah made it clear that she has no intention of being the first female U.S. president.

“I will never run for public office,” Oprah declared. “That’s a pretty definitive thing.”

And in October, Oprah said it again, telling Entertainment Tonight that a political run would not be her “strength” and that she would rather rally behind a worthy candidate.

“It would not be my strength,” Winfrey said. “That’s not going to happen. That’s just not going to happen. Because that would not be my strength. My strength is bringing people together. My strength is connecting people to ideas. My strength is allowing people to see the best of themselves even in the worst of times and circumstances. That is not my thing. That is not what I would be able to do well…But I would get behind someone who I truly believed in and work my butt off to make them as successful as possible.”

After her Golden Globes speech spawned the most recent presidential run rumors, Oprah told the Los Angeles Times the biggest thing on her mind that night had nothing to do with the 2020 election.

“I say, I’m just glad I got through the speech!” Winfrey said. “I thought a lot about it. I wanted this to be a meaningful moment.”