Oprah Winfrey Denies Pitching 2020 Presidential Ticket With Mitt Romney

Oprah Winfrey has disputed the claim made by Sen. Mitt Romney in an upcoming biography that she floated the idea of a joint presidential ticket in order “to save the country” from a Trump reelection.

A spokesperson for Winfrey said that she was never considering a run for the White House in 2020. “In November 2019, Ms. Winfrey called Senator Romney to encourage him to run on an Independent ticket,” a spokesperson for Winfrey stated. “She was not calling to be part of the ticket and was never considering running herself.”

In the upcoming book Romney: A Reckoning, written by The Atlantic‘s McKay Coppins, Romney, a Republican, recalled getting a phone call from Winfrey pitching the idea of running for president as an independent, with her as his running mate. Axios first reported on the excerpt from the forthcoming biography of the Utah senator.

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While the celebrated talk show host has stated she is an independent voter, she has made high-profile endorsements of Democrats including former president Barack Obama in his 2008 presidential campaign and Sen. John Fetterman (Pa.) in his 2022 run against Republican Mehmet Oz, better known as Dr. Oz. Notably, Winfrey had featured Oz as a regular guest on her talk show, which helped him ascend to celebrity status. 

Romney, who ran unsuccessfully for president in 2012, announced last month that he would be retiring from the Senate at the end of his term. “Frankly, it’s time for a new generation of leaders,” said Romney in a press release. “They’re the ones that need to make the decisions that will shape the world they will be living in.”

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