Staff ReporterPresident Donald Trump’s victory may be causing the rich and famous to seriously consider running for office.
Talk show host Oprah Winfrey, 63, said during an interview with Bloomberg’s David Rubenstein that aired Wednesday that she has rethought whether she could run for president now that Trump, a business mogul and TV personality, is in the Oval Office.
“Have you ever thought that, given the popularity you have — we haven’t broken the glass ceiling yet for women — that you could actually run for president and actually be elected?” Rubenstein asked.
After a brief pause, filled with laughter and cheers from the audience, Winfrey replied: “I never considered the question, even a possibility.”
But when Trump won the presidency, the well-known TV host said, “I just thought, ‘Oh, … oh?’”
At that point, Rubenstein jumped in to remind Winfrey that it’s now “clear you don’t need government experience to be elected president of the United States.”
“That’s what I thought,” Winfrey said. “I thought, ‘Oh gee, I don’t have the experience, I don’t know enough, I don’t’ — and now I’m thinking, ‘Oh.’”
However, Winfrey, who endorsed former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, said during an interview with Stephen Colbert in January that she would “never” run for president.
Winfrey made the comment after the “Late Show” host asked if former first lady Michelle Obama would ever run for public office. Colbert then asked, “Is there any charismatic African-American woman that both sides of the political aisle really love?”
“Never,” Winfrey responded emphatically. “No, it’s not my thing.”
During that same interview, Winfrey told Colbert she will miss the Obamas “presence” in the White House.
“For me, you know, African-American woman,” she said, “being able to see that reflection of myself through the girls and through [Michelle Obama], just their presence there, I’m going to miss that. But it has meant so much to me.”
