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SALT LAKE CITY — Sen. Orrin Hatch said Oprah Winfrey would have a shot to be president if she were to run and that he'd like to talk to her about the job.
"I think a lot of people would consider her because she's a winner," the Utah Republican told TMZ in a brief interview Monday as he walked through the Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C.
When asked what he thought about her running, Hatch said, "That'd be great. She's a great soul."
Winfrey's speech at the Golden Globes on Sunday has created a lot of buzz around the possibility of her running for president.
The senator, who announced last week he would not seek an eighth term, went on to say, "It's a real hard job, and I'd like to sit down with her and help her if I could."
Hatch said people like Winfrey enough that she would have a serious chance of winning if she handled things properly. "But it would be uphill," he said.
Hatch's office later tried to clarify the senator's comments in a tweet, saying: "(For the record, if you watch the video you’ll see that while he did not offer to help her run for president in 2020 or at any other time, were she to ever be elected, he would offer to help her in any way he could as he always has with presidents of both parties)."
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