But the press around the speech and the campaign’s denial of the obvious overlap in wording was sucking up oxygen that the campaign desperately needed surrounding Trump officially becoming the nominee Tuesday night.
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What remains unclear is why it took the Trump camp so long to take responsibility for the plagiarism, especially if it was inadvertent.
Trump’s campaign managed only to keep the controversy alive on Day 2 of the convention by insisting there was no evidence of plagiarism, while offering no explanation for how the strikingly similar passages wound up in Mrs. Trump’s address. Donald Trump Jr, however, heaped blame on unidentified “speechwriters” for the bungle.
The second day of the RNC proved to be a family affair.
Meredith says that while working on the speech for the Republican National Convention, she and Melania discussed the people who inspired her, as well as the messages she wanted to convey.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie leading a mock prosecution of Hillary Clinton and the crowd chanting “guilty” and “lock her up” was the number one most mentioned moment regarding the convention. It may be Ryan’s party someday, but not this week.
The protest agenda for Wednesday did not include any large-scale marches, although more than 100 immigration activists took to the streets after a rally in Public Square and blocked off a road near the Quicken Loans Arena.
Kimberlin Brown, a soap opera star and avocado farmer, served as a unorthodox headlining speaker. The night kicks off at 7 p.m. ET.
At the convention’s half-way point, Democrats could barely contain their glee or hide their anticipation of contrasting the Republican events with their own convention next week.
“Their theme should have been, ‘Make the Republican Party Work Again, ‘ because it clearly isn’t”, Luis Miranda, communications director for the Democratic National Committee, said in an interview. “Our convention is going to be the exact opposite”.
“We feel the America people don’t know all of Donald Trump”, he said on ABC’s “Good Morning America”. However, while there have been spontaneous flashes of hostility between pro-Trump and anti-Trump activists, so far there has been no violence and only five arrests.
The night’s headliner will be a speech from GOP vice presidential candidate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence.
Trump’s “Like a Bird” dropped in 2011, 11 years after Nelly Furtado released the mega bird simile hit “I’m Like a Bird”, but who’s to say when we have enough bird songs?
Trump’s family will also continue efforts to show a softer, more personal side of the real estate mogul.
In a statement issued by the campaign, speechwriter McIver said Mrs. Trump had told her that she admired Mrs. Obama, and had read passages from Obama’s speech as an example of things she liked. Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, who has thrown in his lot with Mr Trump, was booed by the crowd. This is the first time that Tiffany has truly stepped in front of the spotlight during her father’s campaign.
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“Together we’ve achieved historic results”, Trump said, beaming live from NY.
