Tag: plagiarism

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White House On Melania Speech Debacle: “The Country’s Got A Lot Of Common Ground”

White House spokesman Josh Earnest was asked about the Melania Trump speech debacle at today’s White House press briefing and he had this to say:

“Obviously in 2008, Mrs. Obama spoke movingly in her own words about her life story, her values,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters. “I’m confident that in the future, aspiring first ladies or potential first husbands would draw on the same kinds of sentiments to advocate for their spouse.”

He added that the fact that Melania Trump received “such a strong review of her speech based on reflection of the same kinds of values that were included in Mrs. Obama’s speech … is an indication that the country’s got a lot of common ground, even in spite of the political divisions that are on display at the convention.”

Classy way to handle it.

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Trump Staffer Meredith McIver Takes Responsibility For Melania Trump Speech

A Donald Trump in-house staff writer named Meredith McIver has taken responsibility for the phrases in Melania Trump’s RNC speech that were clearly lifted from a 2008 speech by Michelle Obama at the Democratic National Convention.

The explanation seems to be Melania Trump read some passages by Michelle Obama, who Melania admits to admiring, to Ms. McIver who was helping with the speech.

McIver says she wrote the phrases down but somehow didn’t realize (?) that the phrases were direct quotes from the First Lady.

“Over the phone, she (Melania Trump) read me some passages from Mrs. Obama’s speech as examples. I wrote them down and later included some of the phrasing in the draft that ultimately became the final speech. I did not check Mrs. Obama’s speeches. This was my mistake and I feel terrible for the chaos I have caused Melania and the Trumps as well as to Mrs. Obama. No harm was meant.”

What isn’t clear is why no one associated with the Trump campaign bothered to run the speech through commonly available software that checks for plagiarism.

And why would a professional writer (she co-wrote three of Donald Trump’s books) take such a sloppy approach to the most important speech of Melania Trump’s life?

Ms. McIver goes on to say that she offered her resignation but Donald responded with “people make innocent mistakes and that we learn and grow from these experiences.”

Because that sure sounds like the Trumpster, huh?

Here’s what is interesting here: the minute this happened Monday night everyone on the Trump campaign including Melania knew who had worked on the speech. You know that the first person addressed in this debacle was Ms. McIver. Why wasn’t this explanation offered yesterday? Instead we got 24 hours of distortion and obfuscation.

What this highlights is how such a small, inexperienced staff can hurt a campaign. And it continues today as the topic will now continue to dominate the news today. Very amateur stuff here.

You can read the full statement (on official Trump letterhead!) below. Click the image to enlarge.

The Trumpster, who has stayed silent as the campaign took time to formulate some kind of response, tweeted this out moments ago:

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Radio Show: Talking Day One Of 2016 Republican National Convention

Check out my latest radio show episode from BlogTalkRadio:

Last night marked the kickoff of the 2016 Republican National Convention.

Speakers included 80s actors Scott Baio and Antonio Sabato Jr., former NYC Mayor Rudy Guiliani, and many more.

Plus, Melania Trump spoke – with some controversy – about her husband, Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee. Comparisons with Michelle Obama’s Democratic National Convention speech in 2008 show many similarities.

I have my opinion about what happened, and I’d love to hear yours.

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Jarrett Hill, Journalist Who Noticed “Similarities” Between Michelle Obama/Melania Trump Speeches, Talks To CNN

Jarrett Hill, who first brought to light the “similarities” between Melania Trump’s Republican National Convention speech last night and Michelle Obama’s 2008 Democratic National Convention speech, talks to Brooke Baldwin about how he realized what was unfolding during Melania’s speech.

Top of the interview Hill shares that he is NOT a paid surrogate for the Hillary Clinton campaign. Indeed, he openly admits he is currently unemployed as a journalist.

Hill explains that while listening to Mrs. Trump speak, the phrase “strength of your dreams” jumped out at him. He researched the phrase and found it in a video of Mrs. Obama’s 2008 speech.

Hill also notes that what we’re all talking about here is the enormous “coincidence” of using the same 22 out of 29 words in the same paragraph.

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Melania Trump Responds To Questions Of “Lifting” Phrases From Michelle Obama Speech

https://www.facebook.com/MelaniaTrump/photos/a.326834337807.150917.263486007807/10154276539242808/?type=3&theater

Melania Trump has posted the above statement to her Facebook page regarding the speech she delivered last night at the Republican National Convention.

STATEMENT ON MELANIA TRUMP SPEECH

“In writing her beautiful speech, Melania’s team of writers took notes on her life’s inspirations, and in some instances included fragments that reflected her own thinking. Melania’s immigrant experience and love for America shone through in her speech, which made it such a success.”

– Jason Miller, Senior Communications Advisor

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Trump Campaign Manager Denies Melania Trump’s Speech Lifted From Michelle Obama

Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort says “We’re moving on.”

But not before turning the entire plagiarism flap into something about Hillary Clinton. Somehow, this is all Hillary’s fault.

For a change.

From the AP:

Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort insisted no mistakes had been made with the speech and said the issue was “totally blown out of proportion.”

“There were a few words on it, but they’re not words that were unique words,” he told The Associated Press. “Ninety-nine percent of that speech talked about her being an immigrant and love of country and love of family and everything else.”

Mrs. Trump’s star turn at the Republican National Convention Monday night captivated a GOP crowd that had rarely heard from the wife of Donald Trump. The passages in question focused on lessons that Trump’s wife says she learned from her parents and the relevance of their lessons in her experience as a mother.

Manafort told CNN Mrs. Trump was aware of “how her speech was going to be scrutinized” and said any notion that she picked up portions of Mrs. Obama’s convention talk was “just absurd.” He also tried to blame Hillary Clinton.

“I mean, this is, once again, an example of when a woman threatens Hillary Clinton, how she seeks out to demean her and take her down,” Manafort said. “It’s not going to work.”

For the record, I don’t think Melania Trump knowingly intended to lift parts of Michelle Obama’s speech from 2008. I believe that in researching ideas and concepts for her speech, she and her speechwriter found these passages appealing and put it into the speech as “place-holder” text, intending to go back and rewrite and “make it her own.”

That sort of thing happens all the time. I’m not giving it a pass. I think someone should own the mistake. But I don’t think anyone intended for Melania Trump to literally speak Michelle Obama’s words on that stage last night.

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Did Melania Trump Plagiarize Michelle Obama’s 2008 Speech?

Did Melania Trump, Donald Trump’s 3rd wife, plagiarize chunks of Michelle Obama’s 2008 DNC speech?

They say imitation is the highest form of flattery.

Check out the side by side comparison below.

Just before giving the speech, Melania Trump told Matt Lauer that she wrote the speech herself with “as little help as possible.”

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Sen. Rand Paul column dropped by Washington Times over plagiarism issues

Sen. Rand Paul is having a really bad week over the recent discovery that he likes to “cut and paste” whole sections of text for his columns and books.

But it’s funny – where you get your news could RILLY RILLY give you a different version of the story.

For instance, if you got your news from Breitbart, you might think “Oh!  Sen. Paul decided to move his column elsewhere.”

But if you saw THIS, you’d get the whole story:

Funny how “context” changes in there, no?

Things that make you go “hmm…”