The Trump campaign is blaming Hillary Clinton for Melania Trump’s apparent plagiarism during her speech last night.
At least one passage in Melania Trump’s speech Monday night at the Republican National Convention plagiarized Michelle Obama’s speech to the Democratic National Convention in 2008.
The Trump campaign is scrambling to throw blame everywhere but where it is due – on Melania Trump herself.
In a bizarre twist, Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort not only denied the plagiarism itself – he went a step further and blamed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton because she hates other women.
“Again, there’s a political tint to this whole issue and certainly we’ve noted that the Clinton camp was the first to get it out there and trying to say that there was something untoward about the speech that Melania Trump gave.
It’s just another example, as far as we’re concerned, that when Hillary Clinton is threatened by a female – the first thing she does is try to destroy the person.
But it’s politics. We recognize it. We’re just going to move on. We’re focusing on the message that Melania Trump gave last night. The American people are focusing on it. We’re very pleased about it.”
In addition to white-washing the incident – AND, blaming Clinton – CNN confirms that “Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has no plans to fire anybody on the campaign or to take any disciplinary action against anyone for the Melania Trump speech plagiarism controversy.”
Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski told CNN’s John Berman and Kate Bolduan that whoever wrote the speech should be fired.
“Whoever was the staff person who wrote this speech should be held accountable and should be fired.” he explained.
As CNN reports, “Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus said at a Bloomberg Politics event 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.'”
Side-by-side transcripts show that Melania’s speech followed the First Lady’s speech from the first night of the 2008 Democratic Convention nearly word-for-word; and, as Vox reports, “These aren’t just throwaway lines you’d expect in any speech given by a political spouse. They’re lines of actual substance and style, which is why so many people are calling this plagiarism — it’s too close to be a coincidence.”
Ironically, as it turns out, Michelle Obama’s speechwriter at the time, Sarah Hurwitz, was a former writer for Hillary Clinton.
As former Obama speech writer Jon Favreau tweeted last night: “Sarah Hurwitz, Michelle’s head speechwriter, used to be Hillary’s. So the Trump campaign plagiarized from a Hillary speechwriter.”
Sarah Hurwitz, Michelle's head speechwriter, used to be Hillary's. So the Trump campaign plagiarized from a Hillary speechwriter.
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) July 19, 2016
You can watch Trump’s campaign manager spinning the story in the clip, below:
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