00:00And can we please come together and at least give this president a chance?
00:04If you were hoping for Oprah Winfrey to heal the country, keep waiting.
00:08For her debut 60-minute segment, Winfrey conducted a focus group evenly divided between Trump
00:12supporters and Trump opponents.
00:14The results, according to The Hollywood Reporter's Frank Scheck, weren't pretty.
00:18The meeting, based in Michigan, featured voters of different races and ethnicities.
00:22As Scheck points out, each was paid $100 for their troubles, which goes to show that Trump
00:27is indeed helping to reduce unemployment.
00:29And surprise, most of the president's biggest supporters were middle-aged white guys.
00:34One of those supporters had this take on the first eight months of Trump's presidency.
00:37I love it.
00:38Every day I love him more and more.
00:40Another added, we wanted someone to go in and flip the tables.
00:43Several women disagreed.
00:44I feel like he's a horrible president.
00:47An African-American man echoed that sentiment, he's terrible.
00:50One woman who said she was a lifelong Republican felt a lot of pressure when she decided to
00:54vote for Hillary Clinton in November.
00:56I got persecuted by my own family, she admitted.
00:59My dad was trying to force me to vote for Trump.
01:01The group was also divided about the president having blamed many sides in his comments about
01:06the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.
01:08Many sides did not kill that woman, someone pointed out.
01:10Another countered.
01:11The KKK wasn't fighting with the KKK.
01:14There were two groups.
01:15In a post-session interview with pollster Frank Luntz, who had recruited the focus group,
01:19Luntz looked shaken.
01:20When you raised Charlottesville, the group broke down, he told Oprah.
01:23They became tribal.
01:25Though Sheck believes Winfrey sensed a potential Lord of the Flies scenario, as she wrapped things
01:30up, the new 60 Minutes contributor says members of the group have kept in touch and that some
01:35have even gone to a shooting range together.
01:37According to Sheck, she tried to spin it by explaining it was an effort to understand different
01:41opinions about gun rights.
01:43But it seemed more like training for the Civil War that now seems so inevitable.
01:47Because if not even Oprah can heal the country, then we're all screwed.
01:51Head to THR.com to watch more from the 60 Minutes segment, including takes on North Korea and
01:55healthcare and to check out Frank Sheck's full review.
01:58In the meantime, what did you think of Oprah's debut report on the divided nation?
02:03Was this a good representation of the pulse of America?
02:06Let us know in the comments.
02:07Until next time, for The Hollywood Reporter News, I'm Jeremy Hassell.
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