In a 1988 interview with Oprah Winfrey, the celebrity talk show host appeared to be amazed at Americans’ ‘fascination’ with Donald Trump and even described him as a ‘folk hero’ for being so popular. 

‘Various celebrities in New York, because it was the opening concert in New York, and there were all kinds of celebrities – very, very famous people coming in to be seated. When you were seated, you got the loudest applause. People stood up and roared and cheered when you walked in,’ Winfrey said during the interview. ‘Why is that? What is this fascination?’

‘I don’t know, maybe I should be a rockstar,’ Trump replied.

‘They thought you were going to moonwalk,’ Oprah quipped. 

After Trump pondered his popularity with Oprah, she also referred to him as a ‘folk hero.’

The unearthed interview came to light a day after Winfrey made a surprise appearance at the Democratic National Convention Wednesday night, during which she railed against Trump, her former friend. 

‘We know all the old tricks and tropes that are designed to distract us from what actually matters,’ Winfrey told those gathered at Chicago’s United Center. ‘But we are beyond ridiculous tweets and lies and foolery. These are complicated times, people, and they require adult conversation. And I welcome those conversations because civilized debate is vital to democracy, and it is the best of America.’

Winfrey also took aim at comments Trump made last month, when he told supporters they ‘won’t have to vote anymore’ if they elect him because he will fix all their problems. 

‘Now, there’s a certain candidate that says if we just go to the polls this one time, that we’ll never have to do it again. Well, you know what? You’re looking at a registered Independent who’s proud to vote again and again and again because I’m an American. And that’s what Americans do. Voting is the best of America.’

Shortly after her speech, the Trump campaign posted a thank you letter that Winfrey wrote to Trump in 2000, suggesting he would be a good president and they would make a good team working together in politics.

‘I might have thought it back then,’ Winfrey said in a 2023 interview. ‘I might have thought it 23 years ago.’

Fox News Digital reached out to Winfrey for comment but did not receive an immediate response prior to publication.

‘This is typical. Many of the liberal celebrities attacking President Trump now used to love him,’ Karoline Leavitt, Trump campaign national press secretary, told Fox News Digital. ‘They only pretend to hate him now because he’s a Republican, and because they are phonies like Kamala Harris.’

Former President Donald Trump praised Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp for supporting his election effort in the key battleground state after previously slamming the Peach State’s executive as ‘disloyal.’

‘Thank you to @BrianKempGA for all of your help and support in Georgia, where a win is so important to the success of our Party and, most importantly, our Country,’ Trump posted to Truth Social on Thursday evening. 

‘I look forward to working with you, your team, and all of my friends in Georgia to help MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!’

The comments come after Trump repeatedly slammed the popular Georgia governor across the last four years for opposing Trump’s challenge to the 2020 election results in the state. The final election results found President Biden defeated Trump in Georgia by 11,779 votes that year. 

‘I’ll be here in about a year and a half campaigning against your governor. I guarantee that,’ Trump said back in 2021 of Kemp. ‘I shouldn’t say this, I shouldn’t say this. I just don’t want you to tell anyone outside of this room, other than the millions of people. You know, I endorsed him. He was in last place and I endorsed him. He went to first place, like, immediately.’

Even earlier this month, Trump slammed Kemp as ‘disloyal’ during a rally in Atlanta. 

‘He’s a bad guy. He’s a disloyal guy. And he’s a very average governor. Little Brian, little Brian Kemp. Bad guy,’ Trump said during the rally, which included more than 10 minutes of slamming th governor. 

Trump’s favorable comments towards Kemp on Thursday evening followed the governor joining Fox News, where he endorsed Trump for president. Kemp had not endorsed anyone in the GOP primary, but said he would support the GOP ticket come November. 

‘We got to win. You know, we got to win from the top of the ticket on down. I’ve been saying consistently for a long time, we cannot afford another four years of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. And I think, you know, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz would be even worse,’ he told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Thursday. 

‘So we need to send Donald Trump back to the White House. We need to retake the Senate. We need to hold the House. We need to hold our legislative majorities that we have in the great state of Georgia. And it takes hard work. That’s what we’ve been doing.’

Georgia is a key battleground state this year, following Trump winning in 2016 against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, but losing the state in 2020 when he squared up against Biden. 

Republicans in the state told Politico earlier this month that the pair should bury the hatchet in order to win the majority of votes comes November. 

‘During the Atlanta rally, President Trump criticized Governor Brian Kemp and revisited the 2020 election results,’ strategist Eric Tanenblatt told the outlet. ‘With Georgia being a pivotal state, it’s crucial for the Republican Party to look ahead and avoid dwelling on past elections. To win in the upcoming election, Republicans need to present a united front and prioritize future-focused policies.’

Trump’s Truth Social post lauding Kemp comes as the Democratic Party wraps up its convention in Chicago, with Vice President Harris delivering her speech accepting the nomination for the ticket. 

Trump called into Fox News later Thursday to give his assessment of Harris’ speech, when he also spoke favorably of Kemp. 

‘He was very nice, and he said he wants Trump to win, and he’s gonna work with me 100%. And I think we’re going to have a very good relationship with Brian Kemp,’ he told Fox News’ Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum. 

In an unsurprising ruling, the regime-dominated Venezuelan Supreme Court has sided with President Nicolás Maduro’s claims he won last month’s election and said voting tallies published online showing he lost by a landslide were fake.

In a courtroom packed with Maduro supporters, the decision was read Thursday in response to a request made by Maduro to review vote totals showing he had won by more than 1 million votes.

The court’s ruling certifying the results contradicts the findings of experts from the United Nations and the Carter Center who were invited to observe the election and who both determined the results announced by authorities lacked credibility.

The main opposition coalition has accused Maduro of trying to steal the vote.

Venezuela’s government officials have claimed a foreign cyberattack staged by hackers from North Macedonia delayed the vote counting on election night and publication of the results, but they have not provided any evidence. 

Gabriel Boric, the leftist president of Chile and one of the main critics of Maduro’s election scam, blasted the high court’s certification.

‘Today, Venezuela’s TSJ has finally consolidated the fraud,’ he said on his account, referring to the initials of the high court. ‘The Maduro regime obviously welcomes with enthusiasm its ruling… there is no doubt that we are facing a dictatorship that falsifies elections.’

The ruling is the latest attempt by Maduro to blunt protests and international criticism that erupted after the contested July 28 vote in which the self-proclaimed socialist leader was seeking a third, six-year term, The Associated Press reported. 

Maduro is widely believed to have fraudulently won his country’s election last month. Numerous regional governments cast doubt on the official vote tally, which showed Maduro with 51.2% of the vote with 80% of polling stations reporting.

The opposition contends the results are not accurate and claims that it won the election with 70% of the vote. 

‘In Venezuela, an occupied territory of the Axis of Evil, the judicial system is essentially non-existent due to the complete absence of the rule of law,’ Isaias Medina III, a former U.N. Security Council diplomat and Harvard Mason fellow, told Fox News Digital. 

‘The separation of powers was effectively dismantled when Chavismo took control, resulting in ‘courts’ with unqualified personnel that are merely extensions of Maduro’s regime, parroting his dictates without independent judgment or integrity. The courts are a third-rate play, directed by Maduro, who pays their bills.’

Polls taken over the course of the summer consistently showed opposition candidate Edmundo González winning by double-digit margins.

González was the only one of ten candidates who did not participate in the Supreme Court’s audit, a fact noted by the justices, who in their ruling accused him of trying to spread panic, the AP reported. 

When the National Electoral Council announced around midnight that Maduro had received 51% of the vote compared to main opposition candidate González’s 44% support, National Electoral Council President Elvis Amoroso said the results were based on 80% of voting stations and represented an irreversible trend.

‘For the past two decades, the socialists completely destroyed the division of powers in Venezuela. Just like the former Soviet Union, Maduro controls and leads not only the executive branch but also the parliament, electoral commission and Supreme Court,’ Jorge Jraissati, a Venezuelan and president of the Economic Inclusion Group, told Fox News Digital.

‘This process began in the 2000s, when former President Hugo Chavez (who died in 2013) packed the Supreme Court with loyalists. In fact, there are shocking videos of Supreme Court judges chanting songs that belong to the Venezuelan Socialist Party. Ultimately, it shows that the Venezuelan crisis cannot be resolved using the institutions of the country, as these are completely loyal to Maduro and are responsible for the political crisis we live in today.’ 

Despite Maduro being declared the winner for a third term, the opposition claimed victory, setting up a showdown with the government over the results.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., condemned the result and criticized the policies of the Biden administration.

‘Another foreign policy fiasco from the Biden-Harris team,’ he wrote on X. ‘They gave Maduro relief from Trump oil sanctions and released his top money launderer & his two convicted drug dealer nephews in exchange for a ‘promise’ to hold fair elections monitored by neutral international observers.’

Officials and lawmakers in the U.S. and elsewhere expressed concern about the legitimacy of Venezuela’s presidential election results after Maduro was declared the winner. 

A bipartisan group of congressional leaders also alleged that Maduro’s victory was fraudulent. 

‘To no one’s surprise, dictator Nicolás Maduro has once again stolen a presidential election. However, what the narco-regime will never steal is the Venezuelan people’s desire to return to democracy and live in freedom after decades of tyranny.

‘We must prioritize uniting the free world in rejecting these sham election results and securing the release of the more than 300 Venezuelans that remain arbitrarily detained in torture centers as political prisoners.’

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken previously said the Biden administration has ‘serious concerns’ about the results and insisted they do not ‘reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people.’ 

Protests broke out across the country on both sides after the announcement last month. 

Venezuelans took to the streets to protest what is widely believed to be a rigged election. The protests started peacefully, but riot gear-equipped police escalated the matter, leading to violence both from the protesters and the police. 

Protesters threw objects, including stones, at the police, while police used tear gas on the crowds in an effort to make them disperse. 

Maduro dismissed the pushback against his victory as an ‘attempt … to impose a coup d’etat in Venezuela,’ adding that ‘we already know this movie, and this time, there will be no kind of weakness.’ Maduro added that Venezuela’s ‘law will be respected.’

Fox News Digital’s Landon Mion, Peter Aitken, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

CHICAGO – One month after replacing President Biden atop the Democrats’ 2024 ticket, Vice President Kamala Harris accepted her party’s presidential nomination as she delivered the most important speech of her political career.

In a roughly 40 minute speech that was the crowning and concluding moment of the four-day Democratic National Convention in Chicago’s United Center, the vice president promised to chart ‘a new way forward’ if Americans elect her to succeed her boss – President Biden.

And Harris warned Americans against returning former President Trump, the Republican nominee, to power. 

‘In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man,’ the vice president argued. ‘But the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious.’

And Harris cast herself as someone who could bring a deeply polarized nation together, saying ‘with this election, our nation has a precious, fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism, and divisive battles of the past.’

‘I will be a president who unites us around our highest aspirations,’ she pledged. ‘A president who leads — and listens. Who is realistic. Practical. And has common sense. And always fights for the American people.’

Harris noted that ‘there are people of various political views watching tonight. And I want you to know: I promise to be a president for all Americans.’

Pointing to her years as a prosecutor, San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general before winning election to the U.S. Senate and four years ago as the nation’s vice president, she said ‘from the courthouse to the White House, that has been my life’s work.’

Harris made history in 2020 as the first woman elected vice president. And she made the record books again this month as the first Black woman and first person of South Asian descent to win a major party’s presidential nomination. And if she wins in November, Harris could become the nation’s first female president.

Harris has been riding a wave of energy and enthusiasm – both in polling and in fundraising – since replacing President Biden at the top of the Democrats’ 2024 ticket four weeks ago.

And she walked out on to the stage at Chicago’s United Center arena to thunderous applause and a sustained standing ovation that included chants of ‘yes, you can.’ 

After describing herself as the daughter of an Indian scientist who immigrated to America ‘with an unshakable dream to be the scientist who would cure breast cancer,’ she recounted how the sexual abuse of a childhood friend fueled her desire to become a prosecutor. 

‘Like the people I grew up with, people who work hard, chase their dreams, and look out for one another, on behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on earth, I accept your nomination to be President of the United States of America,’ Harris said. 

Trump repeatedly took to social media throughout the vice president’s address to take aim at his 2024 rival. 

As Harris talked about her early years, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, ‘A lot of talk about childhood, we’ve got to get to the Border, Inflation, and Crime!’

Minutes later, as Harris in her speech pledged that building the middle class ‘will be a defining goal of my presidency, Trump pointed toward her three and a half years as the nation’s vice president during the Biden administration and asked, ‘Why didn’t she do something about the things of which she complains?’

Harris, as expected, spent a portion of her address spotlighting reproductive rights, an issue that has energized and mobilized Democrats in the two years since the blockbuster ruling by the Supreme Court’s conservative majority to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling, which had legalized abortion nationwide.

She argued that ‘Donald Trump hand-picked members of the United States Supreme Court to take away reproductive freedom.’

And she vowed that ‘when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom, as President of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law.’

But she also touched on border security, an issue that Trump and fellow Republicans have hammered the Biden administration over the surge of migrants into the country in the past three and a half years.

Harris pointed to a border security bill with some bipartisan support that was making its way through Congress earlier this year before Republicans turned against the measure after prompting from Trump.

‘As President, I will bring back the bipartisan border security bill that he killed.  And I will sign it into law,’ Harris reiterated.

Harris also pledged that ‘as Commander-in-Chief, I will ensure America always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world. I will fulfill our sacred obligation to care for our troops and their families. And I will always honor, and never disparage, their service and their sacrifice.’

The comments spurred chants of ‘USA, USA’ from the crowd of Democratic politicians, officials, activists, and supporters in the arena.

Taking aim at Trump, Harris said ‘I will not cozy up to tyrants and dictators like Kim-Jong-Un, who are rooting for Trump.’

She pledged that if elected, she would continue the Biden administration’s efforts in ending two major international conflicts.

‘I will stand strong with Ukraine and our NATO allies,’ she said as she pointed to the eastern European nation’s ongoing war against Russian aggression.

And pointing to the Middle East, she emphasized, ‘Let me be clear: I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself and I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself. Because the people of Israel must never again face the horror that the terrorist organization called Hamas caused on October 7th.’

But she added that ‘at the same time, what has happened in Gaza over the past 10 months is devastating. So many innocent lives lost. Desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety, over and over again. The scale of suffering is heartbreaking.’

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators have been protesting outside the Democrats’ convention the entire week, as the party remains partially divided over the Biden administration’s support for Israel in its war with Hamas in Gaza.

‘President Biden and I are working to end this war such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity. Security. Freedom. And self-determination,’ in a line that elicited loud cheers.

Biden ended his re-election bid on July 21, after his disastrous late June performance in a debate with Trump fueled questions over whether the 81-year-old president was physically and mentally able to handle another four years in the White House – and sparked calls from within the Democratic Party for him to drop out of the race.

Biden, in a well regarded and emotional address, spoke on the first night of the convention before heading to California for a brief vacation.

Harris, near the top of her speech, praised her boss.

‘To our president, Joe Biden. When I think about the path that we have traveled together, Joe, I am filled with gratitude,’ she said. ‘Your record is extraordinary, as history will show, and your character is inspiring.’

Harris also gave a shutout to her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who addressed the convention the previous night.

‘To Coach Tim Walz. You are going to be an incredible vice president,’ she said.

Since Harris took over for Biden atop the Democrats’ ticket, the former president has tried to paint her as a far-left extremist.

Trump, in an interview with Fox News anchors Bret Baier and Martha McCallum following the vice president’s speech, charged that Harris is ‘a Marxist. She always was. She always will be.’

The former president described Harris’ speech as ‘a lot of complaining.’

‘She didn’t talk about China. She didn’t talk about fracking. She didn’t talk about crime. She didn’t talk about 70% of our people living in poverty. She didn’t talk about housing,’ he emphasized. ‘She presided over the weakest border in the history of our country.’