Steven Spielberg Supports Oprah Winfrey For US President in 2020, Says Will Back Her if She Runs

Speculation over whether the actor-turned-TV mogul will run for president in 2020 has been growing following a very charged political speech during the Golden Globes Awards ceremony.

Reuters

Updated:January 12, 2018, 12:05 AM IST

Steven Spielberg Supports Oprah Winfrey For US President in 2020, Says Will Back Her if She Runs

Oprah Winfrey at the Golden Globe Awards Ceremony. Image: Reuters

New Delhi: Hollywood producer-director Steven Spielberg has come out publicly to support Oprah Winfrey if she runs in the election for the next President of the United States.

“I think Oprah Winfrey would make an absolutely brilliant president,” the Oscar-winning director told the Guardian in London on Thursday. “If she declares, I will back her.”

Speculation over whether the actor-turned-TV mogul will run for president in 2020 has been growing following a very charged political speech during the Golden Globes Awards ceremony.

“She is crackerjack on the money on women’s issues and I call her the ambassador of empathy. And our country could use a dose of empathy right now,” Spielberg said.

“She’s been on the air for 35 years with all kinds of social outreach, building bridges between different ideologies and different points of view,” he added.

When asked about whether Winfrey possessed the requisite skills to run for president, he took an indirect potshot at President Donald Trump, saying, “Does our current president have the skill set to be president?”

Spielberg said that the US needed a mindful, empathetic human in the White House who understood people and put people ahead of their own ideas of power and self-aggrandisement. “I think Oprah has already proved her capacity for selflessness,” he said.

“I think she’ll learn on the job the same way Bill Clinton learned – a former governor of Arkansas – or Barack Obama, a junior senator, learned on the job. I’d much rather go for someone like Oprah Winfrey than a career politician,” he added.