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Republican convention: Melania Trump accused of plagiarising Michelle Obama speech

It was a rough start to the four-day buildup to Trump’s presidential nomination, one designed for maximum media exposure for the Republican standard bearer and his supporters.

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“In writing her handsome speech, Melania’s team of writers took notes on her life’s inspirations, and in some instances included fragments that reflected her own thinking”, Jason Miller, Trump’s senior communications advisor, said in a statement.

Conversation on Day 2 of the party’s national convention was dominated by talk of the previous night’s speech by Trump’s wife, Melania Trump, which included lines at matched Michelle Obama’s 2008 convention address.

“In writing her attractive speech, Melania’s team of writers took notes on her life’s inspirations, and in some instances included fragments that reflected her own thinking”, Jason Miller, senior communications advisor, said.

The Trump campaign released a statement before 11 PM PT that did praised Melania Trump’s speech while stressing that she didn’t write it.

“I don’t try to change him”, she has said of her husband. “She knew that. To think that she would be cribbing Michelle Obama’s words is insane”, he said on CNN. Anti-Trump forces, having failed to “unbind” delegates in a long-shot bid to dislodge the nomination from the NY billionaire’s hands, sought a roll-call vote on convention rules to register their displeasure.

“You know who you are, and we’re coming to get you”, Giuliani declared.

But the roll call of states Tuesday night is on track to deliver him the prize.

Although a routine procedure, it too could be the scene of further disruptions by anti-Trump factions.

The incident showed the division in the GOP, but as leaders insisted they can unite the party, at least one North Carolina delegate said he can’t support Trump. “He won that process and now he has the right to be the Republican nominee”.

The White House declined to comment on similarities between the two prime-time speeches. He, meanwhile, would turn his focus back to his role as head of Trump’s transition team should he win the presidency. Bob Dole (R-Kan.), the only living Republican presidential candidate to attend Trump’s convention. After she concluded, he returned to the stage, posed with Melania and lingered on stage. On Tuesday night, two of Trump’s children will pick up where she left off. Tiffany Trump, Trump’s 22-year-old daughter from his marriage to Marla Maples, and Donald Trump Jr., his eldest son and an executive vice president at The Trump Organization, will take the podium. “Now he will go to work for you”, she told Republican delegates.

“Donald wants prosperity for all Americans”, she said, noting that he intends to usher in new programs to help the poor and new opportunities to challenge the young. “That includes Christians, Jews and Muslims”.

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At 10:40 PM, as the story was blowing up, FNC replayed Trump’s speech in its entirely, without acknowledging the controversy.

Trump introduced his wife Melania at the convention