Oprah Winfrey makes surprise appearance at Democratic Convention with callout to 'childless cat ladies'
Television icon Oprah Winfrey made a surprise appearance at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in her hometown of Chicago, where she urged Democrats and independent voters to "choose common sense over nonsense".
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“Let us choose truth, let us choose honour, let us choose joy,” Winfrey told a cheering crowd on Wednesday. “Because that is the best of America.”
Winfrey, who has avoided the political spotlight in recent years, lent some of her star power to Vice-President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota governor Tim Walz on the third night of the four-day convention.
The 70-year-old's comments came before Mr Walz's primetime speech to accept formally the party's nomination for vice-president.
Delivering powerful remarks in which she touched on Kamala Harris' history-making nomination for president – and offered a dig at now-viral comments made by Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance.
"And soon, and very soon, we're going to be teaching our daughters and sons about how this child of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father — two idealistic immigrants — grew up to become the 47th president of the United States," Winfrey said. "That is the best of America."
In her remarks, Winfrey touched on the night's theme of "freedom," saying, "there are people who want you to see our country as a nation of us against them, people who want to scare you, who want to rule you."
During her speech, Winfrey said that, even amid our divisions, most human beings "would still help you in a heartbeat if you were in trouble."
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When a house is on fire, Winfrey said, "we don't ask" about the homeowners' race or religion — "We just try to do the best we can to save them."
"And if the place happens to belong to a childless cat lady — well, we try to get that cat out, too," Winfrey said in a nod to Vance's remarks, in which he said the country under Joe Biden was being run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives."
Winfrey's on-stage remarks were preceded by the short film, American Family: A Film About Freedom, directed by portrait photographer Platon and filmmaker and journalist Scott Dadich and produced by Godfrey Dadich Partners.
The video features interviews with a range of individuals, couples and families — traditional, LGBTQ+, and chosen families — about what "freedom" means to them.