Did Melania Plaguerize Michelle Obama Again
Story highlights
- Melania Trump was the chief speaker at the Republican National Convention Monday
- Parts of Melania Trump's speech conduct similarities to a similar voice communication given by Michelle Obama in 2008
(CNN)Donald Trump'due south presidential campaign doesn't program to fire anybody or to take disciplinary action over the controversy surrounding Melania Trump's plagiarism of Michelle Obama, CNN learned Tuesday.
Trump's campaign hopes to merely move on without farther addressing questions about the speech.
Aides to the presumptive Republican nominee are scrambling to movement by the imbroglio later on a passage in Melania Trump's speech Monday night, which headlined the Republican National Convention's opening dark, closely mirrored a portion of Michelle Obama'due south accost to the Democratic National Convention in 2008.
It's set off infighting and finger-pointing within Trump'due south campaign, and two sources told CNN that Donald Trump himself is furious nigh information technology.
Trump's aides chalked the controversy upwards to media bias and blamed Hillary Clinton'south entrada -- even though the credible plagiarism was discovered by an contained announcer and had gone viral before Clinton's allies and Democrats even weighed in.
In an interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo on "New Mean solar day," campaign chairman Paul Manafort denied the allegations of plagiarism.
"To think that she would do something like that knowing how scrutinized her spoken communication was going to exist last nighttime is just really absurd," Manafort said.
Manafort said the words Melania used were non "cribbed" but are common words.
"In that location's no cribbing of Michelle Obama'southward speech. These were common words and values. She cares about her family," Manafort said. "To call back that she'd exist cribbing Michelle Obama'due south words is crazy."
Sean Spicer, the Republican National Committee's chief strategist, invoked "My Footling Pony" in defending the spoken communication in an interview with CNN'southward Wolf Blitzer.
"Melania Trump said, 'the strength of your dreams and willingness to work for them.' Twilight Sparkle from 'My Trivial Pony' said, 'This is your dream. Anything you can exercise in your dreams, you can do now,' " Spicer said.
He also compared passages of Trump's speech with phrases from musicians John Legend and Kid Rock.
"I mean if we desire to take a agglomeration of phrases and run them through a Google and say, 'Hey, who else has said them,' I can practice that in five minutes," Spicer said. "And that's what this is."
However, Trump's campaign faced criticism even from allies, who largely blamed staffers -- not Melania Trump.
Onetime Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said Tuesday that whoever is responsible for writing the should be fired.
"Whoever was the staff person who wrote this speech should be held accountable and should exist fired," Lewandowski told CNN'southward John Berman and Kate Bolduan.
Lewandowski, who is a CNN contributor, was fired from the Trump campaign concluding month.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said at a Bloomberg Politics result Tuesday morning he'd "probably" fire whoever was responsible for including plagiarized quotes, though he added: "It all kinda depends on the circumstances and how these things are written."
The controversy quickly overshadowed the speech, which was to have been her introduction to voters. It focused on her immigration to the United states of america and her dear for her husband.
The Trump campaign released a statement on the oral communication after the similarities were uncovered, merely it did not mention the plagiarism charge.
"In writing her beautiful speech, Melania's squad of writers took notes on her life's inspirations, and in some instances included fragments that reflected her own thinking. Melania'southward immigrant feel and love for America shone through in her spoken language, which made information technology such a success," co-ordinate to Jason Miller, the senior communications adviser.
New Jersey governor and Donald Trump ally Chris Christie dedicated the speech, saying, "At that place's no way that Melania Trump was plagiarizing Michelle Obama's spoken language."
"I just don't meet it," Christie told CNN'due south Jamie Gangel in an interview Tuesday, calculation later, "If we're talking about 7% of a speech, that was really, universally considered to be a skilful functioning by Melania. I know her. There'south no manner that Melania Trump was plagiarizing Michelle Obama's speech."
Who wrote the speech?
Side-past-side comparisons of the transcripts show the text in Trump's accost following, nearly to the word, the would-exist future first lady's ain from the first night of the Democratic convention in Denver well-nigh 8 years ago.
There were a lot of questions nigh who wrote the voice communication -- but little clarity.
Sources familiar with the campaign's treatment of Melania Trump's oral communication place top Manafort deputy Rick Gates as the person inside the campaign who oversaw the entire spoken communication procedure for Melania Trump.
Gates is denying he oversaw the process of putting together the speech.
When CNN'due south Jim Acosta asked Gates if he oversaw the Melania Trump voice communication process, he said "absolutely not."
Miller also denied Gates' involvement.
"Rick's not a speechwriter and he doesn't have a role in the entrada's speechwriting process -- we have other people for that," he said. "Anybody maxim differently is being intentionally misleading."
Democrats' role
Manafort, on CNN's "New Twenty-four hours," said the scrutiny over Melania Trump's speech was the work of Clinton's campaign.
"This is once once more an case of when a woman threatens Hillary Clinton, she seeks out to demean her and accept her downward. It's not going to work," he said.
However, Trump's aides oasis't pointed to any prove of Democrats' involvement in fanning the controversy.
The Clinton campaign's communications director Jennifer Palmieri said Manafort's comments well-nigh Clinton's involvement were untrue.
"Nice try, not true. @PaulManafort, blaming Hillary Clinton isn't the respond for ever Trump entrada trouble," Palmieri tweeted.
Clinton's entrada on Tuesday focused instead on bashing Republicans for other speeches Monday night, including the mother of a Benghazi set on victim maxim she'd like to see Clinton imprisoned and the crowd chanting at another point, "Lock her upward!" In a fundraising electronic mail to supporters, Clinton's campaign said "in that location'south a difference between drawing a contrast and baselessly proverb your opponent belongs in jail."
White Business firm Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Tuesday that President Barack Obama did not watch Mon night's speeches.
"As it relates to Mrs. Trump'south speech, I'll permit all of you lot weigh in on all of that and try to learn more about how exactly it was written," Hostage said. "What I can say that in 2008, when Mrs. Obama spoke, she received an enthusiastic reception and strong reviews because of her words, her life story, and the values that she and her husband deeply believe in and attempt to instill in their kids."
Before in the day, Melania Trump told NBC's Matt Lauer: "I read once over information technology, that's all, considering I wrote it ... with (as) picayune help every bit possible."
Here is Trump, on Monday:
"From a young historic period, my parents impressed on me the values that you work hard for what you desire in life, that your word is your bond and you exercise what yous say and keep your promise, that you treat people with respect. They taught and showed me values and morals in their daily lives. That is a lesson that I continue to pass forth to our son," Trump said.
And we need to laissez passer those lessons on to the many generations to follow. Considering we desire our children in this nation to know that the simply limit to your achievements is the force of your dreams and your willingness to piece of work for them."
And hither is Obama, on August 25, 2008:
"And Barack and I were raised with and then many of the same values: that you work hard for what you want in life; that your give-and-take is your bond and you do what you say you're going to practise; that you treat people with nobility and respect, fifty-fifty if you don't know them, and even if you lot don't hold with them.
And Barack and I gear up out to build lives guided by these values, and to pass them on to the next generation. Because we want our children -- and all children in this nation -- to know that the only limit to the tiptop of your achievements is the attain of your dreams and your willingness to work for them."
The reaction:
"(To be honest), I was more offended past just about every other speech than Melania's plagiarized paragraphs," erstwhile Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau jokingly tweeted as the accusations went viral hours after Trump's address.
Journalist Jarrett Hill seems to have been i of the outset to notice the similarities on Twitter.
He's a big fan of the Obamas, and told CNN over the phone that one particular line from Michelle Obama's 2008 speech really spoke to him: "To know that the just limit to the acme of your achievements is the accomplish of your dreams and your willingness to work for them."
When he heard Melania Trump beginning saying "the only limit to your achievements," he knew something was incorrect.
Hill said he and so Googled Michelle Obama's speech and saw the like lines.
"It was kind of a total call up moment," he said.
After he posted the comparison on Twitter, his tweet garnered 16,000 retweets.
"Um. This is becoming a matter," he afterwards tweeted.
Never gonna allow you down?
In an even stranger twist, some on social media posited that Trump surreptitiously Rickrolled -- a mutual Internet meme involving vocalizer Rick Astley -- everyone in the middle of her voice communication.
"He will never give upwards," she said of her husband. "And most importantly, he will never, ever let you downwardly."
The chorus of the 80s archetype sounds very similar: "Never gonna give you up/ Never gonna let you down/ Never gonna run around and desert y'all."
A bit of background -- Rickrolling is where y'all get someone to unwittingly click on a link to the video of the Astley song "Never Gonna Give Yous Up."
So, for example, if someone were to tell yous to click here, saying it's another commodity about Melania Trump, and you click on that link, y'all would be taken to an Astley video and thus accept been Rickrolled.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2016/07/19/politics/melania-trump-michelle-obama-speech/index.html
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