Oprah Winfrey on Sunday night explained the thought process behind a Donald Trump tweet from Thursday that immediately resulted in backlash.
The billionaire mogul talked about the tweet during a Q&A following a special Los Angeles screening of Ava DuVernay’s documentary, 13th.
On Thursday, Winfrey tweeted a photo of her TV showing President-elect Trump meeting with Barack Obama at the White House, writing, “Everybody take a deep breath!” She included the hashtag “#HopeLives.”
Everybody take a deep breath! #HopeLives! pic.twitter.com/YqNJSUab3a
— Oprah Winfrey (@Oprah) November 10, 2016
Sunday night, Winfrey said she heard her critics loud and clear and tried to explain what she meant by the tweet.
“I couldn’t breathe after the election,” Winfrey said. “So when I saw [Trump and Obama] sitting together, I actually took a picture of the screen that said ‘President-elect Trump honored to meet Obama.’ And President Obama was being so gracious, and I heard Donald Trump say, ‘He’s a good man.’ I heard Donald Trump say, ‘I’m going to be seeking his counsel.’ I literally went, ‘I can breathe now,’” Winfrey said. “My mistake, and this is what I know to be true: you can never talk about ‘everybody.’ Even in your arguments with your husband and your children. Don’t talk about what you should do, what you ought to do. You can only speak for yourself. So what I should have said was, ‘I just took a breath.’ What I said was, ‘Everybody take a breath – #HopeLives.’”
Watch the full Q&A below. Winfrey talks about the tweet controversy around 17:30.
