Gayle King dressed for a very big occasion on “CBS This Morning” for January 9, and it was not to announce that her best friend, Oprah Winfrey, was officially declaring her intent to run for president in 2020. No, Gayle King, had her own special reason for wearing the classic yellow and white dress she wore today, as she greeted America from the anchor desk. The “CBS This Morning'" crew celebrated its sixth anniversary, and Gayle King declared that she always saves the bright dress, because it is the one she wore on her first day of duty six years ago on the network.
She and co-anchor Norah O'Donnell took a pause to reflect on their time with the show, and smile. A report by CBS News provided a lot of the information in this post.
As for the question burning in everyone's mind, and across virtually every network, ever since Sunday night (Jan. 7) at the Golden Globe awards, Gayle King offered some authoritative information on her best friend’s stem-winding speech, and her true thoughts on becoming president.
Exuberance mistranslated
Like every great performer and orator, Oprah Winfrey was pumped for her moment after receiving the Cecile B DeMille award from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association on Sunday. Gayle noted how Oprah wrote her speech with input from an O Magazine editor, and the icon of television, entertainment, publishing, and film was tweaking her words right up to the ride to the Beverly Hilton from the backseat of her limousine.
“She knew what she wanted to say,” Gayle recalled, and she formulated the message of her six minutes for maximum impact. Oprah refused producers’ requests to chop her comments to three minutes, and demonstrated how to make time stop through her passionate delivery.
Just as in her height as a daytime host, she held every heart captive in sharing her own wonder and awe is seeing Sidney Poitier honored with the Oscar, and transported those feelings to today, giving validation to those women and men of courage coming forth with their own truth in the #MeToo Movement.
As always, she crowned her words in aspiration, calling “phenomenal” women and “magnificent” men together to work for the time when “no one has to say me, too.” It was the kind of speech Americans and the world looks to from a president, and it stirred the people to their feet at the Beverly Hilton, and once the applause started, they continued, adding a full three minutes to Oprah's time on stage.
It's no wonder that after that “electrifying” experience, Gayle King and Oprah's stalwart partner, Stedman Graham, were caught up in emotion. She explained that Graham will always be supportive, but as for the countless e-mails he is getting, asking if his comment that “Absolutely, she would do it,” is him being “strategic or supportive,” she said it comes down to an overeager mistranslation.
King reiterates that Stedman took the question as “Would Oprah be a good president?” Of course, flush with pride, “he answered that she would,” and that it was up to the people, as she stressed in her opening remarks of the morning.
Pressed for service
Oprah Winfrey had many conversations with Donald Trump on her show over the decades and probably would agree that “celebrity,” with an added “apprentice” or not, might be the last thing that needs repetition in a run for the White House, particularly amidst the current legal, criminal, and counter-espionage probes.
Oprah has the instant name recognition, the inspiring story that needs no embellishment of working her way from the bottom to building an empire, and the understanding that words have power -- they are not playthings to mindlessly toss. Gayle King does know that her dear friend is “intrigued” by the idea of being the first black woman president, and likely flattered by the calls from the Iowa campaign chairman offering assistance. Already, offers have come into quit jobs, and campaign full-time for the beloved host, who definitely has her mind on doing good for the country.
Oprah Winfrey was definitely pivotal to presidential issues in 2004 and has always captured the pulse of real need in the population.
Gayle King stresses that “She loves this country and would like to be of service in some way,” but no campaign posters are being printed as of yet.
When evening news anchor, Jeff Glor, noted the shift in tone in Oprah’s response to the question in October to now, Gayle King jumped in to elaborate. “It's not a change from her, Jeff. It's a change from me.”
Even if Oprah Winfrey has no change in her position on public service for the present, she has always been the universal proponent of changing one’s mind.
