Melania Trump speech plagiarized from Michelle Obama’s 2008 DNC speech, Paul Manafort and campaign blame media
The Republican National Convention didn’t waste time getting into the headlines from controversy, but no one expected Donald Trump’s wife, Melania Trump to be the reason. A massive segment of Melania’s speech on Monday seems lifted directly from a Michelle Obama speech. All the details and a video side-by-side are below.
Trump’s presidential campaign doesn’t plan to fire anybody or to take disciplinary action over the controversy surrounding the plagiarism of Michelle Obama’s speech. In fact, Trump’s aides attempted to blame the controversy on media bias and blamed Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
In an interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo on “New Day,” campaign chairman Paul Manafort denied the allegations of plagiarism.
Here’s the key moment in Trump’s speech:
My parents impressed on me the values: that you work hard for what you want in life. That your word is your bond and you do what you say and keep your promise. That you treat people with respect. They taught me to show the values and morals in my daily life. That is the lesson that I continue to pass along to our son.And we need to pass those lessons on to the many generations to follow. [Cheering] Because we want our children in this nation to know that the only limit to your achievements is the strength of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.
And here’s a similar passage from Obama’s speech in 2008:
And Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values: that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say you’re going to do; that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don’t know them, and even if you don’t agree with them.
And Barack and I set out to build lives guided by these values, and 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 height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.
The similarities were first pointed out by Jarrett Hill on Twitter.
CORRECTION: Melania stole a whole graph from Michelle’s speech. #GOPConvention
WATCH: https://t.co/8BCOwXAHSypic.twitter.com/zudpDznGng— Jarrett Hill (@JarrettHill) July 19, 2016
Below is a side-by-side video driving home how closely the two overlap:
So that’s pretty blatant, right?pic.twitter.com/EPnHME7afV
— Mike Hearn (@mikehearn) July 19, 2016
photo/ Pete Linforth via pixabay
