Ted Cruz and 54 for Donald Trump, whom he called “the next president of the United States”.
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Trump, the in-your-face outsider, won at the cost of alienating many traditional Republicans both on the right and in the center, and the divide has spilled over into the convention, though without overwhelming it. The roll call unfolded largely according to plan after a day dominated by unwelcome attention over passages from an eight-year-old Michelle Obama speech that made their way into Melania Trump’s address to the convention, nearly word for word, the night before. He said awarding all the votes to Trump was the GOP’s way “of trying to squash any dissent”.
The businessman clinched the GOP nomination during the second night of the party’s four-day convention in Cleveland. But the rocky start raised questions about his oversight of his campaign, which gives voters a window into how a candidate might handle the pressures of the presidency.
Accusations of plagiarism plagued the Trump campaign from the moment news of the similarities emerged.
Notably, McIver says in her statement that “a person she [Melania] has always liked is Michelle Obama”. ‘She stole the show.
Clinton pounced on the tumult, saying the Republican gathering had so far been “surreal”, comparing it to the classic fantasy film “Wizard of Oz”. “For my father, impossible is just the starting point”, said Donald Trump Jr., eldest of the nominee’s five children.
“They’re not even sentences”.
Trump’s campaign offered no apologies, with top adviser Paul Manafort telling The Associated Press the matter had been “totally blown out of proportion”. In contrast, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said he “probably” would have fired his own speechwriters under similar circumstances. He led efforts to successfully tamp down a rebellion on the convention floor on Monday, though the campaign still had to contend with angry outbursts from anti-Trump delegates.
It was one of the occasional flurries of dissent on the convention floor, including jeers as states that Trump did not win recorded their votes during the nominating roll call vote. Ben Carson went Biblical on Clinton, and House Speaker Paul Ryan dedicated much more of his speech to attacking Clinton that he did supporting Trump.
Trump’s son and daughter Tiffany Trump were scheduled to address the convention Tuesday night, part of a weeklong campaign effort to highlight the brash billionaire’s softer side.
She said Melania Trump had read passages from Michelle Obama’s speech to the 2008 Democratic National Convention over the phone to her as examples.
Trump was widely praised for her success in doing just that, despite the plagiarism charges.
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This afternoon, Team Trump changed directions once more, releasing a statement from Meredith Mciver, who described herself as “in-house staff writer at the Trump Organization”, and “a longtime friend and admirer of the Trump family”.
