Media mogul Oprah Winfrey dipped her toes into politics again on Saturday, responding to jabs from President Trump and talking gun control activism.
Winfrey told the Associated Press she esteems survivors from this month’s shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. who are holding marches and sit-ins to advocate gun control, comparing them to activists from the civil rights movement.
The former host of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” likened the protesting students to the Freedom Riders, who traveled through the South on bus to fight racial segregation.
“It’s an evolving moment for our country,” Winfrey asserted. “The same thing happened, as you know, back in the ’50s and ’60s for the civil rights movement.
“Young people said, ‘We will not tolerate what our ancestors have tolerated. We have had enough and we’re willing to fight for it and willing to march in the streets for it and, if necessary, die for it.'”
The television icon, who was promoting her appearance in the upcoming film adaptation of the science fiction novel “A Wrinkle in Time,” called the demands for stricter gun laws a “proud moment.”
“These young people get to be literally warriors of the light,” Winfrey said. “That’s what they’re trying to do. They’re trying to — through their voices, through the March For Our Lives — say ‘We will not let this happen again. We are going to do what we can to banish the darkness.'”
Winfrey also responded to a tweet in which the president called her “very insecure” over a Feb. 18 “60 Minutes” panel she held on the issue of the Trump presidency.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/965442990134251520
“Nobody wants to be hate-tweeted, especially by the president,” said the former talk show host. “So it’s not a comfortable thing I think for anybody on social media who’s had somebody say something about you that you didn’t feel was true. But I believe that you meet any kind of negativity in your life, that you meet it with light.”
Last week, Winfrey matched a $500,000 donation by George and Amal Clooney in support of next month’s March for Our Lives gun control rally in Washington, D.C.
Since giving a stirring speech against sexual abuse at the Golden Globe awards in January, Winfrey has been floated as a potential 2020 Democratic presidential candidate.
President Trump has offered several proposals for preventing school shootings, including improving background checks, arming qualified teachers, raising the gun purchase age, and banning “bump stocks.”
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