A one-minute part of Melania Trump’s speech included words and phrases that nearly exactly mirrored Michelle Obama’s speech.
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Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus said he would “probably” fire his speechwriters if they lifted passages from someone else’s remarks.
Sean Spicer, chief strategist and communications director for the GOP, went on MSNBC Tuesday morning as the campaign sought to control the damage.
The most recent defense, at time of writing, involved multiple pop music icons as well as the My Little Pony franchise.
Green says he is questioning if the Trump campaign’s strategy of penny pinching could hurt them.
May said that, whatever the band’s views on Trump, it did not allow politicians to play Queen songs including “We Are the Champions“, one of the most recognizable rock tracks which is frequently played at sporting events.
This week’s four-day convention is Trump’s highest-profile opportunity to convince voters that he’s better suited for the presidency than Clinton, who will be officially nominated at next week’s Democratic gathering.
Convention organisers are anxious about political protests in Cleveland but so far demonstrations have been peaceful.
Another passage with notable similarities that follows two sentences later in Mrs. Trump’s speech addresses her attempts to instill those values in her son.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie tried to tamp down the controversy, saying “93 percent of the speech is completely different” from the speech Mrs. Obama delivered.
Pintek also asked Green if he thought there was sabotage involved in the production of the speech. “I mean, she was speaking in front of 35 million people last night, she knew that”.
Waldman said, “What is really kind of deliciously implausible is it’s the section about the values that Trump had that she plagiarized from Michelle Obama after Donald Trump spent eight years trying to de-legitimize Obama as someone alien to American values”. “Real amateur hour”, Dan Pfeiffer, a former senior adviser to Obama, told CNN.
“In writing her handsome speech, Melania’s team of writers took notes on her life’s inspirations, and in some instances included fragments that reflected her own thinking”, Trump spokesman Jason Miller said.
Others were less forgiving, offering pointed barbs about Melania’s insistence that she was the author of the speech.
Trump’s campaign has been marked by frequent controversy over his rhetoric on immigration and trade that has alarmed many in the Republican establishment.
Then there’s the fact that respect for others is a foreign concept in the Republican Party.
Trump’s vice presidential running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, urged the party to put divisions behind it after the primary season, in which Trump beat 16 rivals for the nomination. “We’re not Republicans but we came here to see what it’s all about”, says Brown.
Mrs. Trump was widely praised for her success in doing just that, despite the plagiarism charges.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
Wednesday’s theme is “Make America First Again”.
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Assuming one figured who – Michelle Obama herself, her husband, a speechwriter or the Obama re-election campaign, as the speechwriter’s employer – held the rights, the question would become whether the speech qualified for protection as an original and creative work of expression fixed in a perceivable medium.
