Mike Pence is the United States' vice president now. But before Donald Trump announced Pence as his running mate, there was plenty of speculation about who he'd choose to be at his right hand. Notable Republicans, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, were tossed around in the public conversation. One name we didn't hear, though, was Oprah's — apparently Trump wanted her to be his VP back in 1999.
BuzzFeed has uncovered an interview Trump did with Larry King almost 20 years ago, in which King asked Trump about his plans to run for president as an independent candidate. When King asked if Trump had any VP's in mind, he responded, "Oprah. I love Oprah. Oprah would always be my first choice."
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It looks like he might not have been joking, either. "If she'd do it, she'd be fantastic," Trump told King at the time. "She's popular. She's brilliant. She's a wonderful woman."
I don't doubt Trump's claim that Oprah would "be fantastic" at being vice president, though it is a bit telling that one of the positive attributes he lists is "popular." And he did say this a long time ago — it's hard to imagine that the pair would ever have run for office together in 2016. Oprah endorsed Hillary Clinton's presidential bid last June.
Still, it's hard not to think of what might have been. As vice president, Oprah would definitely have had an opinion about, say, the timing behind James Comey's firing. Check out the 1999 interview King did with Trump below.
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