In this combination of photos, Melania Trump, left, wife of Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump, speaks during the opening day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Monday, July 18, 2016, and Michelle Obama, wife of Democratic presidential candidate, Sen.
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“Mr Trump told me that people make innocent mistakes and that we learn and grow from these experiences”.
Not that crazy-in a letter notably written on letterhead identifying her as an employee of the Trump Organization, which, under federal law, can not lend a campaign its resources, speechwriter Meredith McIver admitted the two worked together to crib Michelle Obama’s words.
McIver’s statement said she and Mrs. Trump had discussed many people who had inspired her, including Mrs. Obama, “and messages she wanted to share with the American people”.
Media captionDid Melania Trump’s speech copy Michelle Obama’s? “No harm was meant”, McIver said in a statement released by the campaign.
Trump’s campaign manager, Paul Manafort, sought to put the Cruz appearance in a positive light, telling reporters on Thursday that the booing of Cruz increased party unity, “in a backhanded way”. I wrote them down, and later included some of the phrasing in the drafts that ultimately became the final speech.
He refused to say whether he would vote for Trump, who had maligned Cruz’s wife for her physical appearance and had suggested that his father was linked to late President John F. Kennedy’s assassin. The furore was “another example of when Hillary Clinton is threatened by a female, the first thing she does is try to destroy that person”, Mr Manafort said at a press briefing on Tuesday.
Speaking earlier in the night, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, Trump’s runner-up during the Republican primary, got booed for refusing to endorse Trump, and for barely even mentioning the nominee in a speech that centered on the importance of conservative values.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a close Trump adviser who was also a presidential rival, criticised Cruz’s address.
There were similar overlaps in a passage dealing with conveying to children that there is no limit to what they can achieve. Melania Trump had selected some of Michelle Obama’s speech as an example.
Mciver said she offered her resignation, but the Trump family “rejected it”.
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“I apologise for the confusion and hysteria my mistake has caused”.
