By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-11-14 20:32:01 | Updated at 2024-11-22 03:08:38
1 week ago
Under fire from critics including her hometown Chicago newspaper, Oprah Winfrey is now seeking to explain the $1 million fee paid to her production company for a town hall event supporting Kamala Harris.
Before the election, Winfrey's Harpo Productions helped stage a star-studded town hall event for the vice president in Michigan as the billionaire entertainment mogul enthusiastically endorsed Harris to be the next president of the United States.
The Harris campaign footed the bill for organizing the town hall and made a $1 million payment to Winfrey's production company, Harpo Productions.
When first publicly confronted by TMZ with the news on Monday, Winfrey appeared to give a denial.
'Not true' she said, when a cameraman asked her about the payment. 'I was paid nothing. Ever.'
But Winfrey is now scrambling to clarify her remarks in an Instagram post on The Shade Room show account.
'Usually I am reluctant to respond to rumors in general, but these days I realize that if you don’t stop a lie, it just gets bigger,' she wrote.
Winfrey said her production team billed the $1 million fee to the Harris campaign to host the Michigan event on her behalf.
'[M]y production company Harpo was asked to bring in set design, lights, cameras, microphones, crew, producers, and every other item necessary (including the benches and chairs we sat on) to put on a live production,' she wrote.
Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris (L) joins media titan Oprah Winfrey at a 'Unite for America' live-streamed rally in Farmington Hills, Michigan, on September 19, 2024
Oprah Winfrey holds hands with Kamala Harris after introducing the vice president to speak during a campaign rally outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
'Winfrey clarified that she personally did not get 'one dime' from the campaign.
'I did not take any personal fee,' she said. 'However the people who worked on that production needed to be paid. And were. End of story.'
The event featured virtual appearances by A-listers including Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lopez and Bryan Cranston.
Despite the splashy celebrity-focused event in the swing state Harris lost Michigan, and the presidential election, to Donald Trump
The Chicago Tribune blasted the billionaire former talk show host over her decision to allow her company to accept the payment, suggesting Winfrey should have paid her workers' fees herself.
US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris (L) joins US television producer Oprah Winfrey at a 'Unite for America' live streaming rally in Farmington Hills, Michigan, on September 19, 2024
Oprah Winfrey speaking at Vice President Kamala Harris final campaign rally in Philadelphia
'Frankly, $1 million is not all that much to Winfrey and so we very much doubt that she was seeking any kind of personal payday from her chosen candidate,' the editorial board wrote in a column.
'But she does own Harpo and serves as its chairwoman and CEO. The production fees should have been a campaign donation.'
Joe Biden and Harris' teams have since blamed each other for wasting over $1 billion in donor cash on a disastrous presidential campaign.
Other celebrities such as Lizzo, Megan Thee Stallion, Eminem, Cardi-B, and Lady Gaga made appearances for Harris throughout the campaign but there is no evidence of their production companies receiving payments from the campaign.
