Oprah addressed her “tweet troubles,” and explained her *real* reaction to the election results

We all have a snafu on Twitter at least once in our lives. For Oprah Winfrey, her tweet about the election faced a little bit of criticism from her fans. Why? Well, because it was heavily misinterpreted. Luckily, Oprah seemed to understand why she received backlash, and calmly explained her side of the story. Because she’s Oprah, and she always does the right thing. Seriously.

Oprah first addressed the tweet right after a screening of Ava DuVernay’s documentary13th. After the film was shown, DuVernay broadcast a live Facebook Live Q&A alongside Oprah. While she’s not in the film herself, Oprah was there to support her pal, and promote the documentary, which is all about racial inequality in the prison system.

Here was the tweet in question:

Everybody take a deep breath! #HopeLives! pic.twitter.com/YqNJSUab3a

— Oprah Winfrey (@Oprah) November 10, 2016

And, here are a few of the responses she (reasonably) received:

please do not normalize this man. Minority children are already being targeted.

— June Diane Raphael (@MsJuneDiane) November 12, 2016

You are too intelligent to believe that. With all due respect.

— Melissa (@1andonlyMelissa) November 10, 2016

Oprah made sure to address the tweet in a positive way, bringing it up first. In fact, her exact words while speaking at the Q&A were, “Y’all heard about my tweet problems?”

First, she explained that she honestly could not breathe after the election. Which is a scary feeling we can all understand.

"I was expecting tension, awkwardness, and strain. So when I saw them sitting together, I actually took a picture of the screen that said ‘President-elect Trump honored to meet Obama,'" she explained. "President Obama was being so gracious, and I heard Donald Trump say, ‘He’s a good man.’ I heard Donald Trump say, ‘I’m going to be seeking his counsel.’ I literally went [deep breath], I can breathe now."

So, really, Oprah was speaking about herself — and not trying to speak for all of America. We can definitely understand the misconception, as tension was high and feelings were hurt for a majority of last week. While we’re still on edge and worried about the future, we can understand where she’s coming from.

"My mistake, and this is what I know to be true: you can never talk about everybody, she added. “Even in your arguments with your husband and your children. Don’t talk about what you should do, what you ought to do – you can only speak for yourself. So what I should have said was, ‘I just took a breath.’ What I said was, ‘Everybody take a breath – #HopeLives.’

 She even said later that her hashtag was a bit off. Maybe #HopeLives wasn’t the best — in fact, #CivilityLives might have been a bit more accurate.

We’re sure Oprah has learned a bit of a lesson — when you have such a wide audience, you might want to think before you tweet.