Days after an exhausting election cycle, Oprah Winfrey is being accused of accepting money to support Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign.
The Washington Examiner published an article last week investigating the Harris campaign’s spending. The conservative news outlet reported that Harris’ team paid upwards of $15 million for “event production,” including $1 million paid to Winfrey’s production company, Harpo Productions.
On social media, the Examiner’s findings started to take on a life of their own, with many characterizing the money as a payoff to Winfrey herself for endorsing the Democratic nominee.
Harpo Productions responded to those claims in a statement to Variety, saying the campaign paid $1 million for “production costs” for “Unite for America,” a live-streamed event that Harris held with Winfrey.
“Oprah Winfrey was at no point during the campaign paid a personal fee,” the company said, according to Variety.
Winfrey echoed that response. TMZ appeared to ambush the mogul and ask her,“Is it true that they paid you a million dollars for the endorsement for Kamala?”
“Not true,” Winfrey replied on video. “I did not get paid a penny. Ever.”
She also made a longer statement shared by Oprah Daily on X, formerly Twitter.
“My 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. “I did not take any personal fee. However the people who worked on that production needed to be paid. And were. End of story.”