The Kamala Harris campaign paid Oprah Winfrey’s company double the amount initially reported for a livetreamed event.
The Washington Examiner reported last week, citing Federal Election Commission filings, that the Harris campaign made a pair of $500,000 payments to Winfrey’s media company, Harpo Productions, on 15 October. Other media outlets, however, said that she was paid personally for her appearance.
In a statement, Harpo Productions confirmed that the Harris campaign paid for the cost of the town hall, without giving a figure. It maintained, however, that Winfrey received no payment for her appearance. “Oprah Winfrey was at no point during the campaign paid a personal fee, nor did she receive a fee from Harpo.”
Questioned by a TMZ reporter, Winfrey said she wasn’t paid for her endorsement. “Not true,” she said. “I was paid nothing, ever.”
Winfrey also posted a statement on her Instagram. “I was not paid a dime,” she wrote. “For the livestreaming event in September, my production company, Harpo, was asked to bring in set design, lights, cameras, crew, producers and every other item necessary (including the benches and the chairs we sat on) to put on a live production. I did not take any personal fee. However, the people who worked on that production needed to be paid. And were. End of story.”
Now The New York Times has detailed the spending on the town hall based on campaign finance reports and unnamed sources.
According to two people aware of the matter, the paper reported, “the $1m actually undercounts the full cost of the event which ran closer to $2.5m”.
The livestreamed event took place in Michigan on 19 September and was attended by a battery of celebrities like Meryl Streep, Bryan Cranston, Chris Rock, Ben Stiller, Jennifer Lopez, and Julia Roberts.
The event, hosted by Winfrey, got over 1.2 million views in under 12 hours.
According to the Times, the outgoing vice president’s campaign spent $1.5 bn, or $100m per week, during her 15-week ultimately unsuccessful presidential run. Some of this money was spent on holding rallies in swing states with star performers like Lady Gaga in Philadelphia, Christina Aguilera in Nevada, Katy Perry in Pittsburgh, Jon Bon Jovi in Detroit, and James Taylor in North Carolina.
Though the celebrities were not paid for their performances, the support staff were, and the overall bill came to more than $10m.
Harris not only far outraised but also outspent her opponent Donald Trump, even though she had a much shorter campaign to run than the president-elect.
According to the Examiner, the Harris campaign spent more than $15m on production fees for events as well as more than $654m on advertising between 22 July and 5 November.
The Democrats have been embroiled in a blame game following Trump’s victory and questions over the Harris campaign’s use of campaign funds have continued to swirl.
“We spent money in stupid ways because we had a really bad strategy,” a former consultant to the DNC told Puck, citing money sent to fund Representative Colin Allred’s failed challenge against Texas Senator Ted Cruz, as well as money directed to help in Iowa, a historically Republican state.
