The Kamala Harris campaign paid Oprah Winfrey’s production company $2.5 million dollars—more than twice the initial claim of $1 million, which the talk-show host strenuously denied.
It was originally claimed that Winfrey’s Harpo Productions had received $1 million for the star-studded town hall in September, but new reporting from The New York Times suggests the figure was much more than that.
Insiders told the Times that the figure was over two times the initial estimate.
Winfrey has denied receiving money for her support, and Harris staffers have also said they did not pay anyone for their endorsement.
“I was not paid a dime. For the live-streaming event in September, my production company Harpo was asked to bring in set design, lights, cameras, crew, producers and every other item necessary (including the benches and the chairs we sat on) to put on a live production. I did not take any personal fee,” Winfrey wrote on Instagram.
“However, the people who worked on that production needed to be paid. And were. End of story.”
Harris’s absurd spending has left the Democrats with a $20 million black hole in their finances.
In total, the Harris campaign spent $1.2 billion, a record amount, compared to Donald Trump’s more modest $750 million.
Among Harris’s many extravagances was the construction of a copycat studio for her Call Her Daddy appearance, at a cost of $100,000.
The set was built in a hotel room in Washington DC, so that Harris wouldn’t have to go to LA.
She also spent nearly $4 million to recruit social-media influences, $9,000 on ice cream and $15,000 in food-delivery. Travel on private jets cost the campaign $2.6 million.
Actual Democrat spending on the election was far more. Estimates suggest that, when payments from affiliated PACs and the DNC are taken into account, the total figure raised is more in the region of $2.3 billion.
By contrast, Trump, his PACs and the RNC raised a total of $1.8 billion.
A combined spend of $3.5 billion makes 2024 the most expensive election campaign in history.
Despite spending considerably less, Trump still managed to hammer Harris, winning the electoral college and the popular vote, and probably control of both Houses.
Between July and election day, the Harris campaign and its affiliates spent $654 million, whereas Trump spent £378 million, 57% less.
As the full scale of the defeat sinks in, the recriminations have already begun, with aides and staffers expressing disbelief at how so much money could be spent to no avail.
“How did you spend $1 billion and not win? What the f***?” said a former Biden staffer, according to The Daily Mail.