Marianne Williamson is taking an indignant stand against the “insidious influence” of Vogue after being left out of its photo shoot featuring female 2020 presidential candidates.
The author and activist was outraged over the magazine’s decision to exclude her from its Monday article which included Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), along with Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii).
A photo of the suited-up lawmakers showed them smiling and high-fiving one another in a wood-paneled room surrounded by upholstered armchairs.
In an Instagram post on Tuesday, Williamson, who was identified in the article as the “spiritual adviser to Oprah Winfrey,” fretted that she wasn’t being given a fair shake.
“The issue is ethical responsibility on the part of the media,” she wrote. “The framers of the Constitution did not make Vogue magazine the gate keepers of America’s political process, here to determine who and who is not to be considered a serious political candidate.”
Williamson went on to invoke former President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who described presidency as a beacon of moral leadership rather than just an administrative office. Her point seemed to be that the race is about more than political credentials.
Continuing, Williamson said that it is solely the role of the people to “decide who will be their president, unburdened by the insidious influence of an elite on patrol.”
That night, Williamson made her case again on CNN, giving a near verbatim recitation of her Instagram post and rejecting Vogue’s explanation that it only wished to focus on candidates with experience as elected officials.
To Williamson, that shouldn’t be a requirement.
“It’s a suggestion that only those who have elected office in their past are qualified,” she said of the magazine’s response. “There are other kinds of qualifications.”
Having been a candidate with little name recognition, Williamson made waves on social media following her appearance at last week’s Democratic primary debate, but the press wasn’t all favorable.
Though she spoke for only five minutes, her answers included comparing herself to JFK, vowing to “harness love for political purposes” and offering a shout out to New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, whom she called “girlfriend.”
The material was ripe for Twitter mockery, which immediately ensued in the form of memes and jokes over her mid-Atlantic accent.
Despite the snub from Vogue, Williamson told CNN she reached out to the magazine to let them know she would participate in a story if asked.
“They wrote back and said, ‘Well, thank you so much for the offer,’” she said.