Vice President Kamala Harris paid Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Productions $1 million, just one example of millions the campaign spent on various entertainers during the vice president’s failed bid for president.
The Harris campaign paid $1 million to Winfrey’s company on October 15, according to a report in the Washington Examiner, coming after a star-studded town hall that Winfrey hosted for the vice president in September.
Winfrey also appeared at Harris’ final rally in Philadelphia on the eve of Election Day, with the talk-show star offering a rare endorsement of a presidential candidate.
“We’re voting for values and integrity,” Winfrey said at the rally. “We’re voting for healing over hate.”
But Winfrey wasn’t the only star the Harris campaign spent big money on, with the Washington Examiner report also revealing that the campaign spent big on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast.
“A source familiar with the matter told the Washington Examiner that the Harris campaign spent six figures on building a set for Harris’s appearance on the popular Call Her Daddy podcast with host Alex Cooper,” the Examiner wrote. “The interview came out in October and was reportedly filmed in a hotel room in Washington, D.C.”
The campaign also spent up to $20 million on swing state concerns on the eve of the election, according to a report in the New York Post, a sum that could have been more if a planned performance by Alanis Morissette had not been scrapped.
The campaign had seven swing-state concerts on Monday, the report noted, including performances by Jon Bon Jovi in Detroit, Christina Aguilera in Las Vegas, Katy Perry in Pittsburgh and Lady Gaga in Philadelphia, and a 2 Chainz performance at a rally three days before the election in Atlanta.
“Money can’t buy you love or a good candidate,” Republican political strategist Brad Todd told the Examiner, with regard to the massive spending.
