Oprah: Lady in Bathroom Accused Me of Not Helping Clinton Enough

(Bloomberg) -- Talk-show icon Oprah Winfrey said a woman in a restroom hectored her for not doing enough to help 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

Winfrey told the story in the season two premiere of “The David Rubenstein Show: Peer-to-Peer Conversations” on Bloomberg TV, which was released Wednesday.

After Winfrey recounted how a woman had recently come up to her in a restroom to say how much Winfrey had done for her, Rubenstein, the co-founder of Carlyle Group Inc., asked his fellow billionaire if it’s hard to go to the bathroom in public.

“As a matter of fact it was, because there was another lady attacking me because she thought I didn’t do enough for Mrs. Clinton,” Winfrey said. “So somebody else came out of a stall -- this is yesterday -- and said, ‘Leave Oprah alone, she’s just trying to pee.’”

Clinton Endorsement

“And she followed me out talking about what I could have done, should have done, blah blah blah,” Winfrey added.

Winfrey endorsed Clinton, the first female major-party U.S. presidential nominee, in 2016, telling “Entertainment Tonight” last June that “it’s a seminal moment for women.” But Winfrey didn’t play as prominent a role for Clinton as she did for Barack Obama in 2008.

“I haven’t felt that my voice would actually make a difference,” Winfrey told Chicago radio station WBEZ last August. “I felt that at the time in 2008, my voice made a difference. So at this particular time, I think my voice is just going to be added to the cacophony of all the other voices, and now nobody knows who to even listen to.”

To voters who weren’t sure they liked Clinton, Winfrey said in October, “She’s not coming over to your house. You don’t have to like her.”

Oprah for President?

Winfrey appeared to suggest to Rubenstein that she was rethinking whether she could be elected president, after billionaire real-estate developer and TV personality Donald Trump won the White House with no prior government experience.

“I never considered the question, even a possibility,” said Winfrey, 63. “I thought, ‘Oh gee, I don’t have the experience, I don’t know enough.’”

“Now,” she said, “I’m thinking, ‘Oh.’”

She and the audience laughed. Growing more serious, she added, “No, that won’t be happening.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Elizabeth Titus in New York at etitus2@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Craig Gordon at cgordon39@bloomberg.net, Elizabeth Wasserman, Laurie Asseo