Oprah Allegedly Rejects White House Invite to Help Push Obamacare; It Was 'Immediate, Flat-Out, Unequivocal No'
Even billionaire media mogul and one time buddy of President Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, wants nothing to do with Obamacare.
New York Times No. 1 bestselling author of "The Amateur," Edward Klein, reports in the New York Post that the president's point woman Valerie Jarrett asked Winfrey last summer to join a group of celebrities, including Jennifer Hudson, Alicia Keys and Amy Poehler, to meet with the president to discuss how they could help promote the controversial health care law and she bitingly skipped on the invite.
"All of Oprah's top people thought she would go, because when the president invites you to the White House, most people automatically say yes," a close adviser to Winfrey noted in the report. "But Oprah said she didn't have the time or inclination to go. It wasn't like she had to think it over. It was an immediate, flat-out, unequivocal no."
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Winfrey reportedly sent one of her low-level employees to the meeting which was taken as an insult.
The report claims Winfrey gave the Obamas the cold shoulder because she is upset by the way they treated her after she used her star power to help the president accomplish his historic win in 2008.
It noted that in return for her support, Winfrey was assured access to the White House under Obama's presidency. She expected regular briefings and preferred access to information and relevant material to use on her cable network, OWN.
"Oprah intended to make her unique White House access a part of her new network," a source close to the TV queen told Klein. "There were big plans, and a team was put together to come up with proposals that would have been mutually beneficial.
"But none of that ever happened. Oprah sent notes and a rep to talk to Valerie Jarrett, but nothing came of it. It slowly dawned on Oprah that the Obamas had absolutely no intention of keeping their word and bringing her into their confidence," the sourced said.
Winfrey reportedly didn't campaign for the president in 2012 because she was too busy to be bothered with politics. She found the time, however, to host a fundraiser for Newark Mayor Corey booker who just recently won a U.S. Senate seat.
While some sources claim there isn't a problem in the relationship between Winfrey and the Obamas, the report claims Winfrey doesn't like to be around the First Lady.
"For her part, Oprah doesn't like being with Michelle, because the first lady is constantly one-upping the president and anybody else around her," said an Oprah adviser.
"Oprah has struck back by banning the Obamas from her O, The Oprah Magazine. ... It probably hurts Oprah more than Obama, who, if he had his head screwed on straight, would have flown to California and begged Oprah to help him save Obamacare. But Obama hasn't budged, and neither has Oprah. She's hurt and angry, and I seriously doubt that Oprah will ever make up with the Obamas. She knows how to hold a grudge," the adviser reportedly told Klein.
