Oprah Winfrey said although she's "100 percent behind" President Barack Obama, she won't be out campaigning for him because she's working on fixing the problems of her Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN).
"No, I'm not going to be out there," she said Tuesday on "CBS This Morning."
"I actually love our president, and have the utmost respect for him and that office and what it takes to be there. I will not be out because I'm trying to fix a network," Oprah said.
Winfrey supported Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign, her first-ever political endorsement. She has said previously that she's confident Obama will win another four-year-term, according to CBS News.
In 2009, Winfrey left her popular daytime TV talk show to create her own cable network. Since then, she's had difficulties with the network including high turnover rates and low ratings, saying she can't take off any time to help the president on his campaign tour.
The Atlantic reported that political scientists Craig Garthwaite and Tim Moore determined that Winfrey's endorsement of Obama prior to the 2008 Democratic presidential primary contributed to an increase in the total number of votes cast. According to their research, Winfrey's support for Obama accounted for about 5 percent of Obama's primary votes.
Winfrey helped Obama gain publicity back then. For the incumbent president now, name recognition isn't an issue. Due to her network's poor ratings, she may not be as influential now as she was before, according to the Atlantic.
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