Oprah Denies Claims That Harris Paid Her Personally for Campaign Appearances
‘Not true,’ she said of the claims: ‘I was paid nothing, ever.’
Oprah Winfrey is denying allegations that she was personally paid hefty sums by the Harris campaign for appearances during Vice President Harris’s failed presidential run.
Ms. Winfrey’s comments came on Monday as a TMZ reporter asked her about claims in several news outlets that the Harris campaign had paid Ms. Winfrey and other celebrities to campaign for her. “Is it true they paid you $1 million for the endorsement of Kamala?” the reporter asked.
“Not true. I was paid nothing, ever,” Ms. Winfrey responded as she walked to her car, while denying to comment otherwise on the election results.
Ms. Winfrey hosted a town-hall called “Unite for America” on behalf of Ms. Harris in September, featuring more than 100 groups including “Swifites for Kamala” and “Cat Ladies for Kamala,” as well as a celebrity lineup including Meryl Streep, Ben Stiller, Jennifer Lopez, Bryan Cranston, Chris Rock, and Julia Roberts. On the eve of Election Day, Ms. Winfrey also made an appearance in Philadelphia, in a last-minute effort to highlight abortion rights and get out the vote for Ms. Harris. “We are voting for healing over hate,” she said at the event.
The Washington Examiner reported last week — in an article detailing how the Harris Campaign outspent the Trump campaign and “plowed through $1 billion” despite losing the race — that “event production” was a key spending area of the Harris campaign, including hosting a “star-studded lineup of musicians from Lady Gaga to Katy Perry for an election eve rally.” The outlet reported that the campaign spent more than $15 million in this area, including “$1 million for Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Productions on Oct. 15 in West Hollywood, California,” per federal filings.
Following that report, several news outlets claimed that the Harris campaign gave Ms. Winfrey herself $1 million and “paid” celebrities to “appear with her” in her run for office.
As Ms. Winfrey has now denied that she was personally paid anything, her production company, Harpo Productions, has said that the payment was for “production costs” associated with the September townhall.
“The campaign paid for the production costs of ‘Unite for America,’ a live-streaming event that took place Sept. 19 outside Detroit, Mich.,” a representative of Harpo told Variety. “Oprah Winfrey was at no point during the campaign paid a personal fee, nor did she receive a fee from Harpo.”
The Sun reached out to a former Harris campaign representative for comment.