US talk show host Oprah Winfrey was considered for Obama's vacant Senate seat

Chicago (Illinois,US), Jan.27 (ANI): Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has told ABC's Good Morning America that he considered offering the Illinois senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama to talk show host Oprah Winfrey.

According to the BBC, he told ABC that Winfrey, one of America's wealthiest women, would have been unlikely to accept.

"She was obviously someone with a much broader bully pulpit than other senators," he said. Winfrey has said she did not know that she was being considered as a potential senator and that she was "pretty amused by the whole thing".

"If I had been watching as I normally watch from the treadmill, I probably would have fallen off," she told the Siruis XM radio station.Winfrey said she thought she could be a senator but that she was "just not interested".Blagojevich's eventual choice for the seat, Illinois attorney general Roland Burris, took office in January after initially being blocked by senators.

Under the 17th amendment of the US constitution, state governors have the power to appoint temporary replacements for senators who resign, die or are expelled, until special elections can be held. (ANI)