Oprah Winfrey Golden Globes speech fills presidential void
Sunday night's Golden Globe awards started off with a nod to Oprah Winfrey's future in politics.
"In 2011, I told some jokes about our current president at the White House Correspondents Dinner, jokes about how he was unqualified to be president," Host Seth Meyers said in his opening monologue. "And some have said that night convinced him to run. And if that's true, I would just like to say Oprah you will never be President," he said, playing on some reverse psychology. "You do not have what it takes."
It was at last year's Golden Globes that Meryl Streep called out President Trump in her acceptance speech for the Cecil B. DeMille Award, without even mentioning him by name. Trump fired back the next day with a tweet, calling Streep "one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood."
Meryl Streep, one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood, doesn't know me but attacked last night at the Golden Globes. She is a.....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2017
Streep wasn't alone in her criticisms of the president. Mr. Trump was less than two weeks out from his inauguration at the time, and it seemed that a jab at the then-president-elect came with every acceptance speech delivered at the Globes that night.
In a stark contrast, this year's Golden Globes featured very little Trump talk. Meyers nailed a few jokes at the president's expense, but Mr. Trump was a sideshow to the main political event of Sunday night: the "Time's Up" initiative started by roughly 300 prominent female players in Hollywood as a follow-up to the #MeToo movement. Actors and actresses took to the red carpet dressed in all black, pairing their outfits with buttons reading "Time's Up," to draw attention to sexual misconduct.
Also garbed in a black gown was Winfrey, who filled the presidential void during her acceptance speech for the same award Streep won a year earlier.
"So I want all the girls watching here, now, to know that a new day is on the horizon!" she said in the final moments of her remarks. "And when that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are right here in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men, fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say 'Me too' again."
Within seconds of the conclusion of her speech, Twitter was lighting up with speculations of a potential Winfrey campaign and "#Oprah2020" started trending, although she had said she has no interest in a presidential run in an October interview with CBS This Morning.
"There will be no running for office of any kind for me," she said in the interview.
In the day following her speech, old comments Mr. Trump made about Winfrey being his "first choice" for a potential vice president pick resurfaced.
"I really haven't gotten there quite yet," Mr. Trump said during an October 1999 "Larry King Live" interview in which he announced that he would form a presidential exploratory committee. "Oprah, I love Oprah. Oprah would always be my first choice," he followed up moments later.