CHICAGO—Billionaire media mogul Oprah Winfrey, who built her fortune in the Windy City, joined the mocking of JD Vance’s “cat lady” comments Wednesday.
In one of many surprise speeches scheduled at the last minute on the third night of the Democratic National Convention, Winfrey was met with thunderous cheering and applause. She noted that Americans don’t tend to discriminate on the basis of race, religion, or sexual orientation when it comes to rescuing a neighbor from a house fire.
“And if the place happens to belong to a childless cat lady,” she added, “well we try to get that cat out, too.”
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Wearing a purple power suit and matching glasses, eye shadow, and lipstick, Oprah warned the audience about “people who want to scare you, people who want to rule you.” But mostly, she focused on a positive vision.
“I’m so honored to have been asked to speak on tonight’s theme about what matters most to me, to you, and all of us Americans: freedom.”
A “USA” chant started in one corner of the hall. The crowd applauded as Oprah predicted that Kamala Harris, the child of “two idealistic and energetic immigrants,” would soon be elected, then got even louder when she repeated the word, “immigrants.”
And though she was appearing at the Democratic Party’s biggest confab, and called the Obamas’ speeches Tuesday night “some epic fire,” she made clear that she wasn’t a committed partisan.
“You’re looking at a registered independent who is proud to vote again and again and again because I’m an American and that’s what Americans do,” she said. “I have always voted my values. And that is what is needed in this election now more than ever. So I’m calling on all you independents and all you undecideds—you know this is true.”
“Let us choose truth, let us choose honor, and let us choose jooyyy,” she sang as the crowd applauded.
Her purple ensemble was as much a nod to her 1985 movie The Color Purple as to the musical theme of the night with John Legend and Sheila E performing a tribute to Prince, the late “Purple Rain” artist from Minnesota, the home state of Harris’ running mate, Gov. Tim Walz.
“Together, let’s all choose Kamala Harris,” she crooned in closing.
