Oprah Winfrey was “with her,” but the media mogul says it’s time to move on from Hillary Clinton’s stunning election loss. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Winfrey reiterated that America has spoken in the 2016 presidential election and that she is no longer fearful of a Donald Trump presidency after seeing the president-elect at the White House.
“I just saw the two of them together, I will say this: I just saw President-elect Trump with President Obama in the White House and it gave me hope,” Winfrey told ET. “To hear President-elect Trump say that he had respect for President Obama, it felt that he had reached a moment where he was actually humbled by that experience.”
Oprah urged upset Hillary supporters—and the rest of the world—to “take a deep breath,” pointing out that President Obama said he has “renewed confidence in the peaceful transition.”
Shortly after the election results were announced, Winfrey told the Associated Press that she has already noticed a change in Donald Trump’s demeanor now that he has won the election.
“I could sense, maybe I’m wrong, but I could sense from Donald Trump’s body language even when he came out for the acceptance speech, that brotha has been humbled by this world thing,” Oprah told the AP. “I think it’s a humbling process that now you literally have the weight of the world on your shoulders.”
“Hope is still alive,” Winfrey added.
But Oprah’s hopeful observations had some people up in arms. Winfrey faced serious backlash on social media for her comments, with some people questioning why she could have even mild praise for the controversial Republican president-elect who stands against just about everything she believes in.
While Oprah has never shied away from letting fans know her position on politics—her talk show was one of the first pitstops for a pre-presidential Barack Obama—she has never expressed an interest in running for office. Still, Donald Trump previously told ABC News that he would love to have Winfrey in his corner—even as his running mate.
“I think Oprah would be great. I’d love to have Oprah,” the former Celebrity Apprentice host told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos in 2015. “I think we’d win easily, actually.”
In fact, the Donald first mentioned Winfrey as a possible running mate way back in 1999, but the OWN head honcho has long made it known that running for office is the one thing she knows for sure that she will never do. Earlier this year, late night host Jimmy Kimmel even asked Oprah what she would say if Trump were to reach out to her to be his running mate.
“I would say, ‘Donald, I’m with her,'” Oprah revealed.
While Kimmel speculated that Oprah could likely beat both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in any election, Winfrey downplayed that scenario.
“I do not believe that,” Oprah said. “And believe me, it’s the one thing that I know for sure, sure, sure, is I will never run for office.”
Winfrey even questioned why, for years, people have always thrown her name out there as a potential presidential candidate because she has never expressed an interest in running for office and always felt she has “no qualifications to run.” Still, after this year’s crazy campaigning, Oprah now says maybe she was wrong about her own qualifications for the most important job in the world.
“I’m feeling pretty qualified,” she joked after seeing Trump’s journey. “After this year, I’m feeling really qualified.”
Take a look at the video below to see Oprah Winfrey talking to Kimmel about this year’s election.
[Featured Image by Mike Windle/Getty Images]
