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Oprah explains why she gave a surprise DNC speech for Kamala Harris: “Decency and respect are on the ballot”
In the city where she first became a household name, Oprah Winfrey took the stage at the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for the 2024 presidential election.
This marked a significant moment for Winfrey, who prefers to stay out of politics but she said felt compelled to use her platform to urge Americans to choose “optimism over cynicism” and “inclusion over retribution.”
“I feel like we all have to do our part. We all have to do something, and I feel that we all have been in multiple conversations about what’s gonna happen. What should we do? What can be done? And now that we have this opportunity, I felt like I should grab this opportunity,” she told “CBS Mornings” co-host Tony Dokoupil in an exclusive interview shortly after her speech.
Winfrey’s appearance was considered one of the night’s biggest surprises. She said she recognized that her decision came with risks, but she believed it was worth it because of her deep concern for the country.
“A lot of things are at stake,” she said, particularly abortion rights, which she views as essential, especially for women.
“The bottom line for me is that decency and respect are on the ballot. And that’s why I was willing to do it. And let me just tell you the big risk was when I don’t have anything to lose. Now, I don’t have a show … It’s not what, what is it gonna cost me other than knowing that I had to do whatever I could to speak,” she added.
When asked about the significance of Kamala Harris potentially becoming the first female president of the United States, Winfrey became emotional.
“It will mean that the glass ceiling has been shattered,” and noted that it would send a powerful message to women and girls everywhere.
“Women all over the world will be weeping in the streets. It will mean that actually anything is possible because this is her mother, her father, to immigrants coming to the United States … only in America could Kamala Harris’s story be possible. And I’m here because only in America. Could my story be possible?” she said.
At least 11 employees were taken to hospitals and residents were urged to shelter in place on Tuesday after an explosion at a Louisville, Kentucky, business.
The Louisville Metro Emergency Services reported on social media a “hazardous materials incident” at 1901 Payne St., in Louisville. The address belongs to a facility operated by Givaudan Sense Colour, a manufacturer of food colorings for soft drinks and other products, according to officials and online records.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said emergency teams responded to the blast around 3 p.m. News outlets reported that neighbors heard what sounded like an explosion coming from the business. Overhead news video footage showed an industrial building with a large hole in its roof.
WLKY-TV
“The cause at this point of the explosion is unknown,” Greenberg said in a news conference. No one died in the explosion, he added.
Greenberg said officials spoke to employees inside the plant. “They have initially conveyed that everything was normal activity when the explosion occurred,” he said.
The Louisville Fire Department said in a post on the social platform X that multiple agencies were responding to a “large-scale incident.”
The Louisville Metro Emergency Services first urged people within a mile of the business to shelter in place, but that order was lifted in the afternoon. An evacuation order for the two surrounding blocks around the site of the explosion was still in place Tuesday afternoon.
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A rare square 37-carat emerald owned by the Aga Khan fetched nearly $9 million at auction in Geneva on Tuesday, making it the world’s most expensive green stone.
Sold by Christie’s, the Cartier diamond and emerald brooch, which can also be worn as a pendant, dethrones a piece of jewelry made by the fashion house Bulgari, which Richard Burton gave as a wedding gift to fellow actor Elizabeth Taylor, as the most precious emerald.
In 1960, Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan commissioned Cartier to set the emerald in a brooch with 20 marquise-cut diamonds for British socialite Nina Dyer, to whom he was briefly married.
Dyer then auctioned off the emerald to raise money for animals in 1969.
FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images
By chance that was Christie’s very first such sale in Switzerland on the shores of Lake Geneva, with the emerald finding its way back to the 110th edition this year.
It was bought by jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels before passing a few years later into the hands of Harry Winston, nicknamed the “King of Diamonds.”
“Emeralds are hot right now, and this one ticks all the boxes,” said Christie’s EMEA Head of Jewellery Max Fawcett. “…We might see an emerald of this quality come up for sale once every five or six years.”
Also set with diamonds, the previous record-holder fetched $6.5 million at an auction of part of Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor’s renowned jewelry collection in New York.
