Chicago Tribune criticizes Harris campaign for paying massive sums to Oprah Winfrey, other celebs

The Chicago Tribune criticized Vice President Kamala Harris' failed presidential campaign for reportedly paying out campaign cash to celebrities like Oprah Winfrey. 

"Having someone with a large following simply stand next to a candidate at a podium and say a few words, solo, is one thing; doing a whole livestreamed event with, say, Oprah Winfrey, is another," the Chicago Tribune wrote in an editorial following reports that the Harris campaign paid Winfrey and other celebrities massive sums for campaign events. 

FEC filings show the Harris campaign made two $500,000 payments to Winfrey’s production company, first reported by the Washington Examiner, on Oct. 15, a month after Winfrey appeared with Harris at a town hall event and weeks before Winfrey was on stage with Harris at a Philadelphia rally before Election Day.

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"Winfrey this week found herself having to deny that the campaign had paid her a ‘personal fee’ of $1 million following some media scrutiny of the public accounting of campaign expenses, saying instead that the money went to her Harpo Productions, once famously headquartered in Chicago’s West Loop and now based in West Hollywood," the editorial board wrote. 

"It’s true that production workers need to be paid and that’s fair enough; they’re not donors," the board added. "And, frankly, $1 million is not all that much to Winfrey and so we very much doubt that she was seeking any kind of personal payday from her chosen candidate. But she does own Harpo and serves as its chairwoman and CEO. The production fees should have been a campaign donation."

"Better yet, rather than do such events, the Harris campaign would have been better advised to let its candidate answer questions from independent journalists and give her more of a chance to explain herself and lay out her plans for America’s future," the editorial board wrote. "Celebrity osmosis did not work; voters wanted to hear more about what Harris would do for them." 

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Winfrey has pushed back on the criticism when confronted by TMZ, saying she was "paid nothing."

A Harpo spokesperson acknowledged to Variety that Harpo Productions took money from the campaign but claimed it was for "production costs" and said, "Oprah Winfrey was at no point during the campaign paid a personal fee, nor did she receive a fee from Harpo."

Fox News' Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.