Oprah Winfrey has responded to a recent attack on her by President Donald Trump by giving the equivalent of a ¯_(ツ)_/¯.
“I woke up and I just thought,” Oprah said during an interview on the The Ellen DeGeneres Show, raising her hands as if shrugging. “I don’t like giving negativity power, so I just thought… What?”
Trump had called Winfrey “very insecure” after apparently watching her on the television news show 60 Minutes, during which she interviewed a panel of Michigan voters about the state of America as well as their thoughts about Trump. The president apparently didn’t like what he saw.
Just watched a very insecure Oprah Winfrey, who at one point I knew very well, interview a panel of people on 60 Minutes. The questions were biased and slanted, the facts incorrect. Hope Oprah runs so she can be exposed and defeated just like all of the others!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 19, 2018
After seeing Trump’s tweet, Winfrey said she reviewed her 60 Minutes segment to see if any portion of it was biased. She also called a producer for the program to weigh in.
In the end, Winfrey defended her work to DeGeneres, saying that a panel of people critique each 60 Minutes show before it’s aired. The first time she previewed the segment, she said she pointed out to producers that only a Democratic response to one of her questions—“What do you think of America?”—had been included. She said she argued that a response from a right-leaning panel member should also be included.
“I was trying to do the opposite of what I was hate-tweeted about,” says Winfrey.
If Trump decides to attack Winfrey again, he should take into account that DeGeneres is on her side. During Winfrey’s appearance on her show, DeGeneres said, “When you mess with Oprah, you mess with me.”
