by Brian Stelter
CNN: Oprah Winfrey is âactively thinkingâ about running for president, two of her close friends told CNN Monday.
The two friends, who requested anonymity in order to speak freely, talked in the wake of Winfreyâs extraordinary speech at the Golden Globes Sunday night, which spurred chatter about a 2020 run.
Some of Winfreyâs confidants have been privately urging her to run, the sources said.
One of the sources said these conversations date back several months. The person emphasized that Winfrey has not made up her mind about running.
A representative for Winfrey has not responded to requests for comment.
The Democratic race for president wonât officially begin until after the 2018 midterms, but many potential candidates are already jostling for position and making trips to Iowa.
âPresident Winfreyâ was the talk of the entertainment world after Winfrey accepted the Cecil B DeMille Award at the Golden Globes. And the âOprah for presidentâ possibility was a top story on morning TV.
The touchstone of her speech was the #MeToo movement. But her hopeful message — âA new day is on the horizonâ — could have doubled as a campaign rallying cry.
Many liberal-leaning celebrities and viewers certainly heard it that way. And that may have been exactly what Winfrey wanted.
As some political strategists have pointed out in the past year, her fame and wealth could make her a formidable Democratic Party candidate. But insiders have their doubts too. Would Americans really choose a TV star as president twice in a row?
For now, itâs all just talk. But her fans demonstrated a lot of wishful thinking on Twitter and Facebook after her speech.
Winfrey has deflected questions about a presidential run in the past, but she has also acknowledged that President Trumpâs election upended assumptions about how to pursue political office.
After the speech, Winfreyâs longtime partner Stedman Graham was quoted saying a run is a possibility.
âItâs up to the people,â Graham told a Los Angeles Times reporter. âShe would absolutely do it.â
Winfrey campaigned for Barack Obama in 2008 and endorsed Hillary Clinton in 2016. During Clintonâs campaign, she discussed the prospect of a female president and said âAmerica, itâs about time that we made that decision.â
She said it would be a âseminal moment for women.â But the moment has yet to happen — which is one of the reasons Sundayâs speech stirred so much attention.
Winfrey has deep pockets, an even deeper well of charisma, and instant name recognition, thanks to decades on âThe Oprah Winfrey Show.â
Reese Witherspoon alluded to her friendâs superstar status while introducing her at the Globes: âThereâs only one person whose name is a verb, an adjective, and a feeling. And that is Oprah.â
What she lacks is political experience.
In an interview with Winfrey on Bloomberg last March, interviewer David Rubenstein broached the possibility, saying âItâs clear you donât need government experience to be elected president of the United States.â
She indicated that the same thought had crossed her mind after Trumpâs election: âI thought, âOh gee, I donât have the experience, I donât know enough.â And now Iâm thinking, âOh Oh!ââ
Winfrey laughed, while the studio audience applauded.
For political advice, she could call the Obamas. Winfrey vacationed with the couple in Tahiti last spring.
When interviewed, Winfrey sometimes stokes 2020 speculation, but other times she shoots down the idea. When her best friend Gayle King brought up the idea on âCBS This Morningâ last October, Winfrey dismissed it. âThere will be no running for office of any kind for me.â
Right now Winfrey has multiple jobs. Sheâs the CEO of the cable channel OWN, a âspecial correspondentâ for the CBS newsmagazine â60 Minutesâ and an investor in companies like Weight Watchers.
Her role at CBS News would conflict with any serious exploration of a presidential run. A CBS News spokesperson declined to comment on Monday.
Winfrey recently sold part of her stake in OWN, but renewed her contract to remain CEO through 2025. It would be relatively easy to step aside from OWN for a presidential campaign.
The political back-and-forth has already begun. On Sunday night, Winfreyâs detractors immediately began circulating an old photo of Winfrey with Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced movie mogul who has become the symbol of Hollywood rot.
But her fans portrayed her as the perfect anti-Trump candidate â that is, if sheâs willing to run. Videos and transcripts of the speech were widely shared on social media on Monday morning.
The Washington Post quoted Meryl Streep saying that Winfrey âlaunched a rocketâ with the speech.
âI want her to run for president,â Streep told The Post. âI donât think she had any intention [of declaring]. But now she doesnât have a choice.â
Earlier in the evening, Globes host Seth Meyers actually teed up the speculation.
âOprah,â Meyers said, looking out at her in the audience, âIn 2011, I told some jokes about our current president at the White House Correspondentsâ Dinner — jokes about how he was unqualified to be president — and some have said that night convinced him to run. So, if thatâs true, I just want to say: Oprah, you will never be president! You do not have what it takes!â
The laughs and cheers from the crowd made it clear: Winfrey would have a lot of supporters in the entertainment industry.
âThe Late Show with Stephen Colbertâ even tweeted out a mock campaign poster on Monday morning. The title: âHOPE-RAH.â
From âThe Oprah Winfrey Showâ to her films and book club selections, Winfrey has promoted inspiration and unity. In fact, thatâs been the focus of her occasional â60 Minutesâ segments.
Her first story was a focus group with both Trump and Clinton votes. Winfrey asked them: âBy the time of the next presidential election, are we more likely to have come together? Will we have sought common ground?â