In his first comments addressing the speech controversy, Trump argued early on Wednesday that the fuss could in fact be a plus for his campaign.
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“Certainly there is no feeling on [Melania’s] part that she did it”, Manafort said. “He’s going to talk about the reason he’s in politics”, Roe said. “She was expressing her personal feelings about her country and her husband and why he’s best for the United States”.
Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, initially commissioned Melania’s speech from writers Matthew Scully and John McConnell, who had worked for George W. Bush, according to The Times.
The 2016 Republican National Convention is now officially Donald Trump’s convention. In the moment, it seemed like an elegant triumph for the Republican nominee, who proudly escorted his wife off stage after a kiss. The tallying of the votes was followed by a display of Trump’s two-track persuasion effort: Testimonials vouching for his character – delivered by his family – and searing indictments of Democratic rival Hillary Clinton’s character – delivered by the rest of the party. Cruz isn’t expected to offer a full-throated endorsement of Trump, but will at least “suggest” that he is backing Trump’s candidacy for president, Manafort said.
Hours before giving the speech on Monday, Melania Trump told NBC’s Toda that she wrote it with as little help as possible. “No harm was meant”, McIver said in a statement released by the Trump Organization. This gave way to arguments that this clear example of plagiarism wasn’t plagiarism at all – because it was really just an awesome coincidence. “A person she always liked is Michelle Obama”.
What remains unclear is why it took the Trump camp so long to take responsibility for the plagiarism, especially if it was inadvertent.
“The buck stops at the top”, Lewandowski, a CNN contributor, said.
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.
Though not an experienced political hand, Trump has found himself at the center of his father’s unlikely presidential campaign. But somewhat mysteriously, Scully and McConnell were not consulted again.
But a speech by Melania Trump on Monday night has momentarily stolen the spotlight.
Other sections of Mrs. Trump’s speech also tracked closely with Obama’s remarks.
It seems that Mr Trump, famous for dramatically firing people for professional incompetence – he had a reality television show built around the concept, after all – will forgive what is usually viewed as a cardinal sin among speechwriters.
And one wonders why Kasich refuses to endorse Donald Trump.
Some critics saw the appeal for people to vote their conscience as a vote of no-confidence in Trump.
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“I think you misunderstood one paragraph that Ted Cruz, who is a superb orator, said. And that’s what I heard last night”.
