Melania Trump, wife of Donald, lit the political world on fire with her convention speech Monday. The tweet that gained the most attention – grabbing more than 20,000 retweets – is now pinned to the top of his Twitter account and highlights quotes from Michelle Obama’s 2008 Democratic Convention Speech.
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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. “I wrote them down and later included some of the phrasing in the draft that ultimately became the final speech”, McIver says in the statement.
“Hillary Clinton I think is a terrific woman”, Trump said in a clip in the ad from a 2012 Fox News interview.
Meanwhile, a Trump staffer named Meredith McIver has come forward to take responsibility for inadvertantly plagiarizing Michelle Obama in the speech, casting the blame away from Melania and her husband.
“I feel awful for the chaos”, she said in the statement. “Make no mistake, we can’t wait four years to get them next time, the consequences are too great”.
Trump said that this loyalty to the family was why he refused to accept the resignation that McIver said she offered.
Donald Trump Jr. said Wednesday on MSNBC that the plagiarism charges are irrelevant and any continued talk is “beating a dead horse”.
“I did not check Mrs. Obama’s speeches”, she continued. What it has done in the latest instance is further drag down Donald Trump’s chances, with the NYT declaring that Hillary Clinton has a 76 per cent chance now of winning the presidency.
For two days, the Trump campaign tried to brush aside any talk of plagiarism, calling the criticism absurd.
Manafort on Wednesday agreed Melania Trump’s speech used “similar words” to Obama’s and insisted, “I’m not lying about anything”.
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Michelle Obama, a Harvard-educated lawyer, has high approval ratings across the country and in Melania’s home city has been embraced in NY fashion circles for her sense of style and elegance.
