Melania Trump’s RNC speech on Monday night went over well… at first. She was well-received in the room, and the #HotTakes were “she did alright.” Then journalists and eagle-eared political watchers began pointing out on Twitter that Melania and her speechwriters totally copied a chunk of Michelle Obama’s 2008 DNC speech. Those Republicans applauding for Melania on Monday night? They were applauding Michelle Obama’s words and ideas.
Did Melania Trump plagiarise Michelle Obama in her Republican Convention 2016 speech?https://t.co/xOK3Ca5xXb
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) July 19, 2016
Even worse than that, Melania rick-rolled the audience (thanks to everyone who pointed this out, IT IS AMAZING).
So what was the response from the Republican establishment? A lot of ass-covering and grumbling. Long-established Republican speechwriters Matthew Scully and John McConnell insist that they wrote a speech for Melania more than a month ago, but that the speech Melania delivered was not it. Chris Christie tried to say that “93%” of Melania’s speech was NOT plagiarized, so that counts for something. CNN reports that the Trump campaign doesn’t plan on firing any staffer or speech writer for the plagiarism, but internal sources tell CNN that Donald Trump is actually “furious” about the incident. Possibly the worst excuse was put forth by Trump’s campaign manager, who claimed Hillary Clinton was behind the whole thing. Seriously? Paul Manafort told reporters:
“Certainly there’s no feeling on her part that she did it. What she did was use words that were common words. And to expect her to think that she would do something like that, knowing how scrutinized her speech was going to be last night, is just really absurd. There’s no cribbing of Michelle Obama’s speech. These were common words and values, that she cares about her family, things like that. I mean, she was speaking in front of 35 million people last night. She knew that. To think that she would be cribbing Michelle Obama’s words is crazy. This is once again an example of when a woman threatens Hillary Clinton, how she seeks out to demean her and take her down.”
Even conservative media was like, “What?” I think Steve Schmidt – a conservative operative turned MSNBC commentator – was one of the first people to point out the plagiarism on-air, but many journalists and social media users were pointing out the plagiarism before Hillary’s campaign said one word about it.
And for some reason, Chris Evans was tweeting about it. On this, I stand with Chris!
Most disgusting sound bite of this campaign at 1:35. And that's really saying something. Shame on you @PaulManafort https://t.co/XakYcAo0LH
— Chris Evans (@ChrisEvans) July 19, 2016
Chris also posted this. I sh-t you not, this isn’t a joke either.
Before typing this, Twitter asked me in faded gray font, 'What's happening?'. I honestly don't know anymore. https://t.co/0t0LHHyFmG
— Chris Evans (@ChrisEvans) July 19, 2016
Photos courtesy of Getty.
Hillary Clinton didn’t break the story, but whatever.
At least,they don’t accuse Michelle Obama 😝
Michelle must be somewhat at fault for leaving the speech on an unsecured server, and not completely wiping the internet of every video from the 2008 convention.
😂
They already did – there’s a “story” going around that Michelle plagiarized the speech from a book. Snopes already debunked it, but that won’t stop some people from spreading it around. (I love snopes)
Snopes reports that it was one line that was similar from the book, about “the world as it is” and the “world as it should be”, which is not an uncommon phrase that I’ve heard many times. Yet some are trying to compare that with what happened with Melania. NO.
They treated Hillary as though she was on trial last night. It was sickening. George Bush said he will be the last Republication President and for the first time I agree with him. Yes those words of her speech were taken from Michelle’s and yet they continue with Trump’s ace of denial. Man will I be happy when these fools leave my city. The end of the week can’t come fast enough.
YES – this. I think the plagiarism is deplorable, but even more concerning to me is the tone of hysteria and accusations of murder being lodged at her. You’d think we were talknig about Chalres Manson instead of Hillary, and though I am not the craziest about her, it is extremely disturbing to me to see a person villified in such a circus like atmosphere. This is mob mentality getting worked up, and it’s frightening, extremely concerning.
I lasted about 45 seconds into Christie’s performance before I changed the channel. Scary to see that many pshyco’s gathered in one place.
I am listening to the recap on NPR the hypocrisy of Christie who just escaped indictment on Bridgegate by the skin of his nose is only topped by the whackiness of Ben Carson and his Lucifer comment
Luca, did you hear the Mexican-American lady defending Trump? “I know he says Mexicans are lazy, not all of them are, but some are.” I was unloading the dishwasher and almost dropped my pile of plates. Reporters uncovering insane soundbites…it’s like shooting fish in a barrel over there in Cleveland.
It was pretty terrible. Bush is probably correct. The party keeps moving further to the right, despite most voters not being that conservative. They look ridiculous.
and Luca76, the latest in NJ is that he’s stopped work on a lot of bridges and other major road projects in NJ because he’s in a snit over a gas tax argument with the legislature. another personal vendetta against the “other” party that he takes out on his constituents.
I could only read about his performance and it was very Nazi-like. I despair that Trump may win – the polls are too close and Trump will crush Clinton in the debates. He won’t crush her with intelligence or substance but will weasel in the “crooked” part enough that it can hurt with independents that already don’t trust her.
Thank god I missed that one Esmom
@doofus he is just awful New Jersey has had the worst luck with governors
According to my local NPR there are a total of 18 black delagates out of the nearly 2500 at the convention.
@EM
I’m not entirely convinced he will agree to debate Hillary.
@Merritt:
I also am not convinced Trump will participate in the debates. Perhaps he will agree to it and then tank at the first one, only to pull out of the rest shouting “unfair, blah, blah, blah” when he performs badly. He really does not do well at answering complex questions.
@Merritt – it’s set for NY already not sure of the date though. Trump is a narcissist and I believe genuinely thinks he is smarter than Clinton PLUS he fights dirty so I don’t think he has any concerns about debating Clinton. I actually think he is looking forward to it b/c he is so much better than her. He tends to believe his own lies and is relishing throwing in the crooked and probably a few Bill related nasties.
On this off chance that this is even true, all it proves is that Trump’s campaign (and by extension Trump himself) is so incompetent that they fell for something that would have been caught by a simple google search. Do you really want somebody this easily outwitted in charge of weapons of mass destruction/international diplomacy?
Either way, Trump comes out of this looking like the supreme idiot he is: he/his campaign either plagiarized the remarks — in which case he’s a dishonest creep devoid of integrity who will do anything to win (no duh) or he’s a complete idiot who fell for something that wouldn’t have pulled the wool over the eyes of a middle schooler.
One of Hillary’s strengths is she is a formidable debater. Even Carville conceded it was Hillary who prepped Bill before his debates. She is a great, polarizing counterpuncher, very much like the late Bobby Kennedy. Love her or hate her, she can fight back with a compelling counter-defense. Trump will participate in one debate, at the very most, and then walk out or back out of the rest because he doesn’t comprehend the dynamics of national politics much less international politics. He’s an amateur in that arena.
The NY Times has a breakdown of how the speech was written. Apparently, Donald hired two big wig speech writers known for writing George W’s speeches. They wrote something for Melania and sent it to her a month ago. She didn’t like it. She recruited her friend, a former ballet dancer and English major, who’d helped Donald write some book. They googled spouse convention speeches , a little cut and paste and, voila- plagarism!
What’s really interesting to me is that of all the speeches they must have perused, it was Michelle’s that resonated the most with Melania. Too karmic for words!!!
English Major at Trump University maybe!
On a purely superficial note, Mrs Trump is about 3 more surgeries away from turning into Joyce Wildenstein.
with a mixture of Caitlyn Jenner
I think she and Caitlyn look very similar.
I was trying to think who she reminded me of, and yes it’s Caitlyn Jenner.
But I thought she said she doesn’t do anything to her face and just ages gracefully?
Then again, her version of the truth includes an unearned college degree and immigration fraud so….
Only if “gracefully” means hanging upside down in a wind tunnel for 15 hours a day. No other force of nature would result in that.
God you are so right! So no joke, why doesn’t Melania catch more hell for the surgery and the LAFace? I guess I never paid her much attention or thought she was making a “sexy” face for the cameras and posing. Seeing her talk is completely different.
Because she’s pretty, subservient to Donald, and doesn’t talk. And especially after the “masculinity” that was Michelle that’s a godsend. 😒
Did you watch the video of FLOTUS and Melania’s speeches side-by-side?
Michelle is so engaging and warm. In sharp contrast, Melania is so mechanical and cold.
Part of that is because her face is frozen in place I’m sure.
“Melania” was on Colbert last night giving her side of the story. If you missed it, google, please. It was hilarious.
@Kittens I watched the side by side and noticed the stark differences. I am going to miss Michelle. I will never forget how the right tried to make her into some scary monster. She is one strong woman.
@Tate-The way the media treated Michelle was textbook treatment of black women. There aren’t many people that I look up to in this world but Michelle Obama is one of them. She’s such an inspiring symbol of strength and resiliency, and that’s to say nothing about all that she’s accomplished as First Lady.
I seriously stan her, and I don’t stan anybody.
what kitten said. EVERY WORD. MO is awesome.
Can somebody pleaseeee riddle me this? I read somewhere that Melania came to the country on an H1B visa. I also read yesterday, that she lied about graduating from college in Slovenia. I have friends, highly skilled and super duper educated engineers with doctorates, who’ve come here with H1Bs. Would Melania qualify for this Visa for… modeling????
WaPo fact checker says yes she probably would’ve qualified for that, however, they also point out that Donald is opposed to H1Bs. Oops!! I love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning……..
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2016/07/19/fact-checking-the-first-day-of-the-2016-republican-national-convention/
You can get an H-1B to model. What you cannot do – which Melania has effectively admitted to doing before she got an H-1B and later her green card – is travel to the US on the Visa Waiver Program (now known as ESTA) and work as a model.
Thank you! I just said the same thing on a friend’s FB feed yesterday. She is one more nip & tuck away from Jocelyn Wildenstein!
The next surgery is to pry an apology out of this fluff. Michelle Obama is owed an apology as she chose to steal rather than acknowledge. Full Stop. And IF MT was actually an university student the plagiarism would have been scared out of her- proves she’s no college grad.
I didn’t realize how much she had altered her face until I was googling about her childhood. She was a very lovely young woman, and I’m very surprised to see how much different she really looks. Kind of a shame, but I’m not really surprised given that she’s more or less a trophy wife.
They are from Taylor Swift’s family ?? They can’t accept they are wrong and they made a mistake .
After all,it was a great speech
Donald Trump constantly denies reality to avoid admitting mistakes. This isn’t the most blatant, just the most recent.
Classic narcissistic trait.
How is it HC fault. I may not know much about American politics but can someone explain how this is suppose to be HC fault?
Because, according to some Republicans, everything wrong in the world is directly attributable to Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.
Again I don’t know a lot but I know that everyone calls HC a liar and criminal but I have never seen a bigger slim ball than trump where most of what comes out of his mouth is a lie. Seriously the guy a nasarsictic compulsory liar.
Side note; had to look up what rick rolling is.
@Aussie girl, I had to look up rick rolling also and still not sure what it is.
I said last night, if there is a earthquake today, the trump people will say Hillary caused it. MT did steal a part of Michelle O speech, but they will never acknowledge it. Next, they will tell us Hillary was the one who started Trump University and scam all the money from the students. They are spitting in our faces and telling us it’s raining because they believes the voters are stupid.
@AussieGirl, not everyone. Hillary has a lot of supporters.
Rickrolling is when you think you’re going to get something, but instead you get Rick Astley. I usually see it happen when an actor is on a talk show and they’re told, ‘lets look at a clip from your upcoming movie’. But instead of a clip from the movie, we’re treated to a clip of Rick Astley singing his song, ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’. The actor is then said to have been ‘Rickrolled’. In this case, she repeated his lyrics, thereby ‘Rickrolling’ the audience, who thought they were going to get an original speech.
Oh Lilac I didn’t realize you’ve met my mother-in-law.
Thanks, delorb. I was clueless.
You all have no idea. My grandmother and her friends ARE the Fox News demographic! The mental gymnastics it takes to follow how every bad thing that happens here and abroad is absolutely Barack Hussein Obama’s fault (and you best believe there’s always an extra bit of emphasis on Hussein) is mind-numbing. I swear they open their mouths and I can her Bill O’Reilly’s voice.
You don’t need to know anything about American politics except this: the Republicans have gone collectively crazy. No, seriously. They make zero sense and ceased being a legitimate party in roughly 2000, but still people cling.
@Betsy
Yes, but, unfortunately, people with zero firing brain cells back him.
It was funny many months ago. Now, it’s genuinely frightening.
It’s really sad and scary. But I think this is what happens when certain demographics start to lose their power and start having to share that power. Our country has really “evolved” on matters related to communities of LGBTQ, women and minorities, and I think the former power holders (straight white men) are freaking out and having a tantrum.
Will not be surprised if there are two Republican Parties before long. The Tea Party and assorted nuts have taken over the original and the rest must be feeling disenfranchised.
I’ve got a relative who insists that Obama is a Muslim and therefore “anti-American”, apparently because the talking heads on Fox keep saying that or alluding to it.
I tried to walk them through the logic of a) he’s not Muslim; he describes himself as Christian* and b) so what if he was Muslim? Being Muslim is neither illegal nor a bad thing, so how would that make him “anti-American”? (To which the response was “well, his father was a Muslim, so…”
Can’t believe talking heads make that “accusation”, saying something they know is false and positioning it as though being Muslim is some kind of crime. Makes me want to direct their attention to the 10 Commandments, since they seem to want to point to the Bible as the source of the only acceptable religion. They seem to have skipped over #9 “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour” So, although it’s a shame so many people are taken it by that nonsense, my real anger is at the “pundits” and the “media” who peddle this nonsense and play on fear for clicks and ratings and bragging rights.
*as do I.
They are saying that Trump is a threat to Hillary Clinton, therefore people are going after his wife for trivial matters just to bring her down. It’s very much the same argument that Hillary supporters use every time she breaks the law. “Hillary is a powerful woman who threatens Republicans, so people point out and exaggerate every little thing she does.” There are no heroes or angels in American politics these days.
They are saying that while men may capitalise on the guffs made by men or women, women may not do the same against other women. Trump clearly studied feminism under the tutelage of Taylor Swift. He is also invoking the women-are-driven-by-jealousy trope.
There have never been heroes or angels in American politics, not from the founding fathers who kept slaves to Bernie who moaned about special delegates but was happily pinning his last hopes on them just a month ago. In fact, there are no angels or heroes in politics anywhere in the world, as anybody who pays attention to Ang Sangs Myanmaar or back in the day Mandelas South Africa can attest. Politics is about trade offs, balancing competing goods and figuring out the lesser evils.
That’s not what they’re saying at all. “This is once again an example of when a woman threatens Hillary Clinton, how she seeks out to demean her and take her down.”
“Every time Hillary breaks the law”? So why isn’t she in jail?
Oh, hmmm. Just don’t.
It’s called Clinton Derangement Syndrome. It’s been going on since 1992, when Bill first had the nerve to be elected President and Hillary had the nerve to be obvious about wanting a political career of her own.
Because Hillary Clinton is an agent of Satan (Source: Ben Carson) who causes everything in America to go wrong. Terrorist attack? Hillary’s fault. Rising gas prices? Obviously Hillary’s fault. I stubbed my toe? DAMN YOU HILLARY!!!!!!!
Yeah, Carson’s Satan/Lucifer comments kinda threw me for a loop. It’s surreal to hear someone so mild mannered-sounding just spew nonsense like that as if it’s fact. The crowd would literally cheer at anything anyone the RNC trots out says, it would be funny if it wasn’t so terrifying.
@Esmom
While Carson was running for president he said a lot of crazy things. Such as: Women who get abortions are like slaveholders, Jews could have prevented the Holocaust if they had guns, Muslims should be disqualified from the presidency, There’s not a war on women but there is a war on ‘what’s inside of women’, Being gay is a choice because prison turns people gay, There’s no such thing as a war crime, Congress should be able to remove judges for voting for marriage equality, and so on and so on. This guy is legit crazy. It really makes you wonder how intelligent you have to be a to become a brain surgeon.
Not just a brain surgeon, Dr. Carson was a brilliant cutting edge brain surgeon at Johns Hopkins. All it makes me see is that people can be intelligent in a certain area, and not intelligent in others. I know most people know that, but Dr. Carson is a glaring example of the extremes. For the Trump supporters, shouldn’t it make you wonder about how transferable Trump’s supposed skills and intelligence would be. Just a thought.
Melly, I know. It just catches me off guard every time because he delivers his insanity in such a measured and non-ranty way. I have also wondered how it is that he managed to become a brain surgeon.
I’ve spent many years working with doctors and here’s my view, Esmom, for what it’s worth. A good knowledge of anatromy and physiology and the necessary technical skills go a long way to making a surgeon of any sort. Extreme intelligence is not essential, great motor skills are. I’m not sure if Carson did research or teaching, which have different requirements again. Surgery as a profession does not necessarily attract people with emotional intelligence. I think research has shown it has a significant number of members who score highly on the psychopathy scale: cutting into people, and being able to make immediate potentially life-ending decisions in the OT may require similar characteristics. As a doctor friend of mine said, “quite a lot of surgeons are intelligent psychopaths; the rest are just psychopaths”. A bit unfair, I’ve met lots of very nice surgeons, but it’s perfectly possible for someone like Carson to be a good technical surgeon. It does make me wonder how he performs on the “softer” skills of communicating with patients and families though. If he’s a big believer in Lucifer, he could pilot a few combined surgeries/ exorcisms.
I wonder if Ben Carson had a stroke or some other neurological event at some point that changed him. He talks so oddly, not just in what he says but also in how he speaks. Some people tried to say it’s because he’s so intelligent, but I’ve known plenty of intelligent people in highly technical fields and that’s just not normal. He also was getting so many malpractice suits over rookie mistakes, his insurance must have been astronomical and so he might have had to retire. Or else his colleagues pushed him out as diplomatically as possible because he was obviously losing it and you don’t want a surgeon who is losing it. He may have been prone to a worldview where Satan is an ever present danger because of his religion, but he may have really gone overboard about it once he began to deteriorate.
The current Mrs trump is a fool. She was caught thieving Michelle Obama’s intellectual property. These people are a joke.
Chris Evans is tweeting about it because he does follow politics. His uncle is Representative Mike Capuano, a democrat, and Chris has worked on his campaigns.
That has to be pretty awesome to have Captain America working on your campaign.
Maybe the Dems can have a modern day superhero as their celebrity speaker, versus Chachi and a soap actor.
Hopefully Chris doesn’t belittle people on social media the way at least one of the above does on a regular basis.
Trump dogs the Obamas out for years, but yeah cool, steal Michelle’s words.
This X 1000! I am so disgusted with this whole situation I don’t know what to say.
And don’t get me started on the media’s use of ‘supposed’, ‘alleged’, etc. It’s none of those things, it IS plagiarism. Period.
They have to say “alleged” because it hasn’t been been proven in court. I pretty much only know about how plagiarism is handled in academics. But I imagine that Trump could (and would) try to sue for defamation if they stated it as fact without a trial.
@Malificent,
I don’t believe that. The evidence shows clearly that this is plagiarism which does not mean a law has been broken (unethical and craven, yes). Many commentators have called it such. Suing for defamation would be petty and plain ridiculous. Anyone using the word “alleged” in this case is ignorant.
Thanks Malificent, that makes sense.
I’m alternating between laughing and crying about this story. I don’t really know what else to say at this point.
I agree. The absurdity of this whole situation just baffles me.
yeah, when you add in the RNC flunkie’s use of My Little Pony as a defense, it starts to sound like an Onion article or an SNL skit.
The Twilight Sparkle defense is the best thing ever. You have no idea how happy that made me to hear that RNC jerk use that defense on CNN. I almost spit out my coffee with joy. It’s so rare that we get something as beautiful as the Twilight Sparkle My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic defense.
BEST. DEFENSE. EVER.
I just read a hysterical comment on NPR:
“My little phony.”
Bwhahaha!
All I can think is, “who the hell let this happen?” Are her speech writers really that bad? And if they didn’t write the bulk of that speach who did? Did she write it, and if so who let her walk out on stage and embarrass herself?
I thought there were handlers and protocol and stuff to keep frankly amateur mistakes like this from happening. And then to blame it on Clinton? What, did she write the speach now? Did she pay her evil double agent speach writers to make a fool out of Melania? Sure, right, I’m suuuuuure that’s what happened.
Drumpf’s children are taking on jobs within the campaign that they are unqualified for. Ivanka’s husband is apparently Drumpf’s speech writer. I guess we know who will fill his cabinet. Chris “Bridge” Christie, Ben “Lucifer” Carson, the three Drumpf adult children not named “Tiffany”, and the ten year old little prince. Maybe Drumpf will be sworn in holding Mein Kampf.
Wow. Just, wow.
Trump children are working for his campaign, and he pays them very well from the campaign fund. This campaign is a money making scam for the trump family. Heaven help us if the people don’t wake up and see this man and his shady associates. They are all shady. They learn from the best, DT.
And yet he wants ordinary people to give whatever small amount they can, after it was alleged how his family is traveling, eating, etc., from campaign funds. Yet people think he has their interests at heart.
I blame Rick Astley. And all of Britain. As well as the entire English language.
Shame on you. Rick would never turn around and desert you.
Argh! Now that song is going to be in my head all morning. THANKS HILLARY.
Lol, thank you. Listening to all this RNC stuff on the radio is making me feel increasingly unbalanced, I needed a laugh.
Good to see Rick back in the charts after all these years btw. I’m grasping at straws in the middle of all the doom and gloom…
I know! No one EVER call out English, and that b!tch has gotten us all in trouble at one point or another. And yet again, she slides out of this mess clean. I just don’t get it.
Honeybee, preach! The English language and words in general have gotten me in trouble more times than I can count.
He’s never gonna make you cry or say goodbye.
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you (either).
–TheRealPinky
Says Donald Trump’s third wife…
He would never make you cry either!
And he’s never gonna give you up.
Rick Astley for Prime Minister!
Campaign poster: https://scontent-bru2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/13522068_10209933548315758_2938636274231575043_n.jpg?oh=65c15f782c28fd84f5244b7a2d832845&oe=58226142
Just hold on, for one more day!
Why won’t someone at the RNC call them out. You don’t even like the dude, and yet you covering for him like this DOES NOT MAKE YOU AND YOUR PARTY LOOK GOOD.
Lmao @Chris Christie. If for some reason I ever have to go up in front of the Honor Council for plagiarism I’m using that excuse.
Sadly, many of his supporters have ran with the Paul dude’s comments asking whether or not “Michelle has a copyright on good family values now?” UGH
The RNC chairman tried to talk about how inspirational the speech was and defended her but admitted the controversy was a distraction and said that he’d “probably” fire the speechwriter, but then went on to state he didn’t how know this speech was written, but that they were common themes, still trying to make light of it, like it wasn’t plagiarism. He didn’t state that, just inferred that. In other words, he tried to talk around it and put out the positives of Melania’s speech about being an immigrant and her life story.
Common themes are fine. Even Obama’s former speechwriter Jon Favreau said in response to this that very few political speeches say anything truly unique. The difference here is the word for word lifting of entire sentences. That is plagiarism, and how Melania thought she could get away with it (thanks, YouTube!) is beyond me.
professors at the law school Christie attended pretty much laughed at his reasoning; they said that his excuse would NOT fly, and the plagiarist would be brought before the discipline committee regardless of what “percentage” she copied, They have a very exact definition of what constitutes plagiarism at Seton Hall, having to do with the number of consecutively copied words, and Mrs. Drumpf’s speech FAILED their test.
There are sophisticated plagiarism detecting softwares now that makes it harder for people to get away with it – the Trumps should have tried running the speech through it. Apparently a Trump junior staffer named Meredith McIver wrote the speech and has fessed up.
yeah, I saw that…and I’m not buying what she’s selling.
did she also put the Rick Roll in there? I read another very plausible scenario, written by a does-it-for-a-living ghost writer and he made a decent argument how it could have been passed from the first writer to the next with no notation that it was a copy/paste STARTING draft and that it needed paraphrasing, etc. and that it just kept being passed until it got to Mrs. Drumpf. the problem, in his assessment, is that NO ONE put notes on the first draft and NO ONE ran it through any type of software like you described, and it makes the whole campaign look incompetent and disorganized. I read it and was like “yeah, I could buy that…EXCEPT FOR THE RICK ROLL”.
that part had to have been deliberate, which makes the guy’s theory, and this woman’s claim of “oops it was my fault” not believable. it makes much more sense that it was done deliberately by someone who wanted to embarrass Mrs. Drumpf and the campaign.
ETA: the funniest part is that they’re now admitting to the plagiarism after having completely denied it for 36 hours. they needed to find a random staff person to take the blame.
Yes, a more accurate name for her would probably be Patsy McIver.
This crazy local politician in my town is there. Up until now she had been very anti-Trump, Cruz was her man. But now she’s posting all this gushy crap about party unity on her little political FB page, while still not mentioning Trump. Although she is defending Melania (saying Michelle actually plagiarized the speech first, lol) like her life depends on it. I’m sure its only a matter of time before she and her cronies get behind Trump, too. It’s just horrific.
Post the snopes link on her page that clearly dunks the “Michelle plagiarized” theory.
Yassss! This is why I stan for Chris Evans. I keep telling you guys to give him a chance, get to know him like I know him. The fact is to really know Chris is to really love Chris.
Seriously, does anybody else thing this Melania guff was staged? I doubt she was in on it but I think Trump was. Maybe he thought it would humanise her because otherwise she is just an entitled cosmetically altered bimbo with a “russian” accent to the base. Now middle america is suffering second hand embarrassment for her (relating to her!) instead of hating her. Just my theory.
I think there’s a very strong chance that someone internally sabotaged her, but not to make her look good because EVERYONE left her out to dry.
The only people I know who are supportive of Melania were the Trump fans/Republicans since she “is what a woman is supposed to be.” (??? idk they’re all weird) Everyone else (aka the people that Trump and co. had to win over) was kind of neutral on her until yesterday. In other words, Melania failed in making people come around to like her husband, her supporters were tripping all over themselves to justify her actions, and at best she looks like a liar.
I totally agree this must be internal sabotage! Trying to blame Hillary is of course ludicrous, the evidence is clear for all to see. Melania’s speech was a direct cut & paste. Hillary didn’t 1) write the speech 2) break the story. Trump must be livid as his own team has made Melania look like a laughing stock. Heads will roll and I hope we’ll hear from another ”fired staffer/whistleblower soon” (perhaps without the gag order that was clearly placed on the other creepy campaign manager he had). Trump is scary though and probably good at silencing people 🙁
i think it was sabotage too. there is no way in hell anyone would let melania trump write her own speech for the RNC. zero. zip. nada. the fact that her own husband and his team are now hanging her out to dry is just one more reason they are dangerous. her own husband! look for a divorce in the next 6 months. i understand she should have taken responsibility for what she was given to say but lets get real – she just made sure she looked good and read over that speech a few times. She is not a public speaker and honestly – she is barely even a public person (i forgot trump was even married) but now she is publicly embarrassed on the biggest stage and if i were her i would be righteously pissed.
yep Lizzie, Trump is a ruthless SOB he’d even throw his favorite daughter under the bus in a heartbeat to save himself. I’m sure Melania knows this very well and knows she made a deal with the devil years ago in exchange for the lifestyle she’s become accustomed to. I’m sure she has put up with far worse than him throwing her under the bus like this, although this time of course it’s all out in the public! It would be great if she does eventually divorce him but I’m sure he learned after Ivanka to make an air-tight prenup and gag order!
So if Melania was vocalizing “common words and values” that Michelle Obama also has, why do they have such a big problem with the Obamas? I guess the Trumps aren’t so different from the so-called closeted Muslims and foreign-born Obamas as much as they’d like to think they are 🙄
Yes. I think the worst part is they think Melania Trump did great and Michelle Obama is awful, and they said the exact same thing. In reality who cares what Melania Trump said. No one votes for anyone because of their spouse. Still this is FUNNY, like a great SNL skit funny. She steals from Michelle Obama and then Rick Astley and who next Milli Vanilli? Then we blame Hillary Clinton, and I have yet to see a real quote from her about it. The worst part about blaming Hillary is there are legitimate reasons to not like her, but the fact that your campaign is getting flack because almost word for word you copied a portion of the First Lady’s speech from 8 years ago isn’t one of them. Just belittles your argument when you try to criticize her for her ideas and policies. I really think Trump’s people think the American people are that dumb. Well here’s hoping that is not the case at least for the majority of us.
Oh the irony of a speech about loyalty and hard work behind plagiarized by Trump’s third wife.
And by bringing up MLP, they actually DID try to imply that Michelle Obama lifted lines from the cartoon…despite the cartoon not even airing on television until 2010. Two years AFTER the speech.
That magical Obama time machine is hard at work again!
What? My Little Pony plagiarized Michelle Obama’s speech? The nerve of Sparkle Pony.
I’ve been wondering how the Trump campaign would spin this, and now it seems like they’re throwing Melania herself under the bus. “We hired two competent professional speechwriters for her, men who are awake to every nuance of plagiarism, but she took the speech and did her own thing and they never saw it again before she delivered it blah blah blah.”
At least that’s my takeaway.
Then they are changing their story because at first Melania said she wrote the speech and then yesterday when the plagerism was put out there, they said she didn’t write it herself. They are tripping all over their stories.
there’s an article on Salon (I think?) listing all of the excuses they’ve used. It was like Jake Blues’ excuses to Carrie Fisher’s character in The Blues Brothers.
“Honest… I ran out of gas. I… I had a flat tire. I didn’t have enough money for cab fare. My tux didn’t come back from the cleaners. An old friend came in from out of town. Someone stole my car. There was an earthquake. A terrible flood. Locusts! IT WASN’T MY FAULT, I SWEAR TO GOD!”
the RNC can’t get their story straight so they’re throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks.
This story should have been over by breakfast yesterday. The Trump campaign should have admitted that a mistake was made, said something about how Melania was inspired by former first ladies during her research for this speech, and fired a speech writer/campaign speech editor. Boom, problem solved. But of course Trump and his minions can not ever admit a mistake. They double down and say you (the general public) perceive reality wrong.
This. Admit the speech was plagiarized move on. We shouldn’t be talking about it 2 days later.
I agree so much.
It was incompetent that they let it happen, but then they doubled down on incompetence by not nipping it in the bud and letting the story grow.
I also think focusing on that “I can barely move my face” woman is a convenient distraction from the foolishness of the entire RNC convention. However, it’s pretty funny that so many praised her speech when the words were Michelle’s. He and his campaign are complete frauds and imbeciles.
Trump is Brony. Amazing.
Funny how plagiarism basically stopped Joe Biden’s career in its tracks for decades, but now it’s ok if “most of the speech wasn’t plagiarized.”
That’s one of the things that makes me rage/want to crawl into a hole and never come out-that this is a legitimate argument from them, that well, it’s not like she copied the WHOLE THING. Like that makes it okay. And people are just eating that up! And the sad thing is, that is the climate in this country right now-I bet if you did a poll (not even related to this situation) many, many people would tell you that it was okay to cheat sometimes.
Not only that, but Sen. Biden apologized and took full responsibility even though it was an aide/speech writer who did it. Now, that’s how you own something, Melania. I was sunk for him at the time, while also having his already high esteem rise further in my eyes. That’s what a person of honor does. We say, “sorry, I messed up. I’m human, but will strive to do better in the future.” Full stop.
Exactly. This whole situation about her speech speaks volumes about how a Trump administration would handle problems. Never admit fault. Blame someone else. Double down. Plagiarism is bad, but I think the response is about a million times worse.
+1 Melly, +1
This is giving us more insight into what a Trump adminstration would be like than hours of policies speeches.
All this is hilarious, until you remember that it’s not scripted, it’s not fake, it’s not a TV show. This is real life. Donald Trump could be the actual president of the United States of America. Then it becomes pretty terrifying.
When he started running, and it appeared he would get the nomination, I thought there was no chance he would win and I looked forward to him, and the Republican establishment being utterly humiliated. But after the Brits voted for Brexit, I realise that nothing is safe. That it is possible for the majority of voters to make a completely uniformed, dangerous and self-harming decision out of hatred and terror stoked by a small but vocal, powerful, self-serving elite.
+1000000. Thank God I am Canadian and can always run for the border if necessary.
Don’t wait, BearcatLawyer. If Trump wins, we’re building a wall! 😉
And that’s how Hitler came to power.
Everything you say is true, but I’ll throw in the fact that it’s human nature not to learn from human history. We like to think we have, and that we are better than, smarter than or more evolved than those who came before us, but we’re not.
This is a very dangerous moment for us, and not at all for the reasons Trump’s campaign would like us to believe.
Learn from history or you are doomed to repeat it.
Some might think your comparison is an exaggeration, but I agree with it. It’s like people think it is too bad to be true, that our country wouldn’t really let things go that far.
But this is a candidate who has advocated torture. The killing of family members of suspected terrorists. Internment camps. Mass imprisonment and deportation of 12 million people.
I voted for Brexit as I believe the EU is corrupt – to the tune of approx £90 billion a year and for various other reasons. I am not a racist and I believe Trump is a lunatic and if he becomes President of the United States there isn’t a place far enough away that we can escape to.
I love that they’re trying to blame Hillary Clinton and the media. They do something wrong, and somehow it’s everyone else’s fault but theirs. And to blame the media is pointless, as it took off like wildfire on social media before most news outlets could even report on it.
Also, apparently who son he spoke last night, lifted several unique phrases from an article. Either they and their speechwriters are the laziest bunch of idiots ever, or a speechwriter is seriously sabotaging them from the inside, which speaks to the campaign’s inability to properly vet people.
His son’s speech writer was the guy who wrote the article. So he was borrowing from himself.
Though, it is a questionable tactic, so soon after this bungle.
This just shows how f**ked up this campaign is. They could’ve issued a statement, but instead they fumbled around with a bunch of ridiculous excuses that include
1. Blaming HRC
2. Quoting My Little Pony
3. Stating that Michelle Obama didn’t invent words
Cab you imagine these people in the time of a crisis? The NYT ran a story today about how an advisor from the Kasich campaign said that Donald Jr. contacting them about John Kasich being the VP and how it would be the most powerful VP in history. Because Trump’s VP would be in total charge of domestic and foreign policy. When the advisor asked what Trump would be in charge of, Donald Jr. said “Making America great again”
Even more reason not to vote for Trump-Pence. I don’t want the rest of the United States to be like Indiana
Omg that’s so funny but scary. If he wins, he will truly be a figurehead and who knows who will be running the place since Pence also doesn’t seem like the brightest bulb!
“Cab you imagine these people in the time of a crisis?”
^^^^THIS!
Think of all of the major events that require a calm and steady hand! When our country grieves, as it inevitably will sometime during the next administration, I just can’t see Trump making us feel better.
oooh do you have the link to that article?
Right here.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/20/magazine/how-donald-trump-picked-his-running-mate.html?_r=1
He wants to make America great again, while blatantly violating the protocols in place for running the government in America. His supporters amaze me.
Oh, this pisses me off. Demonize Michelle Obama for eight straight years and then steal her words? Typical. I swear, Hillary could stand on stage next week doing armpit farts for 90 minutes and it would still be less embarrassing than this crapshow.
“Demonize Michelle Obama for eight straight years and then steal her words?”
Isn’t it the most shameful thing?
Forget blaming Hillary- TWILIGHT SPARKLE???? Dear God, I about died reading that one! How does a RNC mucky-muck know about Twilight Sparkle??? Anyone besides RNC know if TS is still on shelves, or is it EBay only? I may have to get one!✨✨
Lots of men are into MLP – bronies, I think they’re called. Yes, they still sell MLP, but they look super weird now.
Not that I wanted to buy my boy one and they look to weird to keep around or anything.
My preschooler students still love them. It’s cute to see how into them they are.
They just look so hideous now!
God forbid I defend the guy but he was actually using it as an example of how “universal” the words in the speech were. He said he googled some phrases from the speech and MLP came up. Basically he was implying that Michelle’s original speech could have come from MLP. Diabolical prick.
OMG you guise, clearly Michelle got in a time machine and and jumped to the future and stole her speech (I heard she also beat up some old people and kicked a puppy) so that she could use it in 2008. It is so OBVIOUSLY a conspiracy against TRUMP and AMERICA!!!!!! You know, because the Obamas are Muslim America haters and stuff. They got together with Hilary about 25 years ago to plan the whole thing.
How has Trump been able to get so far and become the republican candidate? Out of all the republicans in America, this is the best they could find??? As for his plastic trophy wife, the least said the better.
Blaming her speech on Hillary was hilarious though.
In the beginning there were wayyyyyyyy too many Republican candidates. That made it confusing for voters and easy for politicians to get lost in the shuffle. Enter Donald Trump and all his antics, and suddenly you have a frontrunner only because he’s distinguishable. Jeb Bush, the clear Republican pick, couldn’t muster up enough excitement for his campaign, he was tainted by the whole George W. Bush association, and he’s establishment. There’s rumors that many competent Republican politicians declined to run this race, because it was “Jeb’s turn.” Also didn’t help that no one took Trump seriously until it was too late. Many Republicans are tired of the status quo/loser status they’re in and are desperate. The Republican elite would rather win and have a “Republican” in the White House than use common sense.
Not to mention all of the free media coverage Trump got throughout the primary process.
Because in order to win the nomination, you have to win primaries. And to win primaries, you have to appeal to the base. And in order to appeal to the base, you have to mirror what they feel and say what they’re thinking, no matter how crazy. Happens on the left as well (Bernie Sanders). Most understand that they have to pivot to the center if they want to win, but Trump doesn’t have to do that, thanks to some Bernie supporters who will either sit this one out or vote for a 3rd party. Thereby making this election closer than it needs to be. Someone should organize the progressives to run locally, so that winning nationally will be easier. Can’t have a revolution from the top down. So many local republicans run unopposed, that its scary.
So well said!
Very good points. Well done!
Not just local candidates run unopposed. US Senator Lugar (Republican, Indiana) had no opposition the last time. Don’t know current numbers, but I think in the 80s or 90s at least 25% of Congress had run unopposed. With no quorum requirement and a winner-take-all system, a candidate can just vote for himself in such an election and emerge from the voting booth as victorious by a landslide of a single vote.
Ugh, I saw some poll numbers the other day that had a less than 10% spread between Clinton and Trump, and third party candidates in the low double digits.
If people Ralph Nader this because they can’t give up the Bern, I’m going to be really pissed. Generations would have do deal with the fallout of a Trump presidency. I’m just praying it won’t be literal nuclear fallout.
What’s irritating is that everyone is starting to make excuses for Melania. They are now blaming a speech writer who gave them the speech. Didn’t Melania say, “I wrote the speech myself and had very little help.” Now that she’s been caught stealing, it’s someone else’s fault. either way, she’s shady as hell: a liar or a theif. My thought is that Melania looked to Michelle because Michelle is popular and very well thought of. She picked a passage taht she believed would not be too obvious and thought no one would notice. This was a calculated thing,
Melania didn’t write the speech. A team of writers did. She just lied, and now wishes she didn’t since part of it was plagiarized from Michelle Obama’s speech.
Guys. At the risk of sounding like a complete tin foil hat crazy person….is there anything else happening at the RNC or with the election at large that we SHOULD be focusing on, but we’re too distracted by this plagiarism? As much fun as the internal sabotage theory is, I’m extremely suspicious of the current iteration of the Republican party in general and the Trumps in particular.
Chris Christie was talking about how, if elected, they’re going to figure out a way to fire civil service hires made under Obama.
How long knives creepy can they get?
I work in academia, and this kind of plagarism is really really common with students. “Oh I read it and then paraphrased but I changed key portions! That’s not plagiarism!” It’s hilarious that all of these people are thinking at the same level as a student in a English 101 class, and that so many people apparently don’t know what plagiarism is. Cite your sources, or come up with a original idea. Paraphrasing isn’t you making it your own.
And then the BS with it coming from My Little Pony. I mean. Really? Really? They know we are all laughing at them right?
I know. I teach English in high school and said yesterday on Facebook that this is the kind of excuse 14 year olds give!!! Lol!!!
This! I had a student cut and paste from wikipedia, and when I called him on it he panicked and said it was a “rough draft”. No.
I love a good quote. My textbooks and notes from college are full of quotes by professors and friends, including who said it. Use a quote, just include”as so and so said….”. Ta da. It isn’t that hard.
High school is nice about plagiarism too! In college, you are immediately expelled and it goes on your transcript. Throw the book at those kids 🙂 Plus, I don’t know about you all, but I’ve filled out job apps that ask me if I’ve every been expelled or left a collegiate institution not in good standing. Yknow? It’s pretty serious to plagiarize, as much of a red herring as this is for the blatant asshattery of this sh*tshow trainwreck we call the RNC.
This is also the EXACT conversation we have with students when we bust them.
“I wrote the whole thing myself”
“well, I looked around for a couple of ideas”
“it’s just a coincidence”
“the rest of the paper is mine”
“it’s not my fault: I didn’t get the topic, and my dad and I looked around online for ideas”
The only thing that’s missing is crying and Melania’s panic that her GPA will go down and she’ll lose her scholarship.
The Trumps and Taylor Swift MUST be related. They blame everyone but themselves. Not surprising!
Difference: the president matters. I like 1989 and all, but Tay Tay? Doesn’t really matter long run.
If Trump is elected, America as we know her will cease to exist.
I have been watching snippets of the convention and that place is bare. I mean he got the 1200 some odd votes needed ( I think it was 1500, in that range). That being said, no way 35 million people are watching this at home. The research department currently is holding a D-.
I believe people are watching, but that doesn’t mean they’ll all vote for him. My mom has been watching, and there is not a chance in hell he’d ever get her vote.
But do you think it is the number his campaign is throwing out.
I’m watching and I’m not voting for him. In fact, most of the people I know who are voting for him are not watching and most of those I know who are watching are voting for Clinton. The Republicans in my office don’t want to talk about the convention. The Democrats do.
Maybe he’ll never give up, maybe he’ll never let us down, but his ex wives can certainly attest that he *will* run around and desert you!
LOL! Well said, Melody.
Wow, I just watched the clip on CNN where this Republican guy is trying to defend Melania. He is so upset, he looks like he’s about to have a heart attack. They are reaching with their excuses
Please vote for Hillary! These people f’ing scare me!
I know, they make me feel ill. They are so awful it’s unreal.
Yes, America please vote for Hillary, you cant let this clown and his family in the whitehouse, I am for Ireland and I am fricking scared of what he will do to your country and the world!
It’s not plagiarism, you guys! She really believes the words are her own!!!
Well if I were married to that misogynistic orange moron, I’d fantasize I were Michelle all day too LOL
…Night go without saying.
[…All night *goes* without saying]
Manaforte needs a new wiglet. That’s all I got.
And in other GOP news….they’ve recently passed the most anti-LGBT platform in history. Shame, SHAME on them!!
http://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/davidbadash/log_cabin_republicans_shocked_gop_passes_most_anti_lgbt_platform_in_history
I wonder how loudly Caitlyn Jenner is going to get booed when she speaks.
to add, regarding the Log Cabin Republicans, I don’t know how someone could be a member of a party that has outright hatred for their demographic.
Interesting. I didn’t know Melania didn’t use the speech previously written by two respected speech writers and drastically changed it with the help of a ghostwriter. It looks like I was giving Melania too much credit by stating it wasn’t her fault. .
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/20/us/politics/melania-trump-convention-speech.html
I’m horrified and floored by the coverage of Cleveland. The fever pitch of ignorance is no longer funny. It’s not longer a gaffe, or a silly news story, or prime fodder for talk show hosts. This has just gotten scary at this point. I mean, terrifying. The way each speaker was out for blood when talking about Hillary and went for the jugular every time-simply unheard of. Very little conversation about the party’s actual platforms, vision for the future, or way forward. EVERYTHING that was said was some low brow, overtly sexist dig at Hillary. Bringing up her husband so much? His sexual history? This is a national party convention preceding the race for President of the United States of America, and we’re quoting Twilight Sparkle, a fictional horse, and talking about BJs that happened 15 years ago. The shrill misogyny and just general misguidance amongst the right has reached outer space now. These people are completely unhinged and out of reality’s orbit. The way Donald Trump gaslights Hilary, before she has the chance to defend herself is simply revolting. “Ivanka is a powerful woman, so people hate her.” “Yes Hillary, take the woman card.” etc. it just never ends. He is a belligerent nightmare of a human being who holds onto his power by never shutting up and there are millions of people hanging onto every word he says. It’s disturbing. I’m just astounded at the sexism being flung at Hillary Clinton. These are dark times in the US. I’m very worried for the future of this country when someone like Donald Trump can rally such support. Our education system is crumbling before our eyes. If knowledge is power, then the Republican establishment is doing its best to make sure the American public never regains it. The way they are going after Hilary is the stuff of 17th century witch hunts.
And all those third party democrats and non-voters can seriously bite me. Losers. VOTE for Hillary. Or thank yourself when Donald Trump sends us into countless wars, strip mines public education, closes down national parks, takes women back to the dark ages, deports your friends and neighbors, makes streets less safe, passes racist legislation, lets the house have a field day, secures vast inequality for generations, spends your tax dollars on a wall with a moat and sharks with laser beams on their heads, and makes America a sitting duck for terrorist attacks and domestic warfare.
Less than 1/4 of the adult population of my fair city, which is decently sized, (within the top 30-40 population wise in the US) came out to vote for mayor…
Very worrying that so many people just sit out. Vote people. Your ignorance is not Hilary’s fault.
Then vote…people are allowed to disagree with you
I just don’t see how anyone can disagree that Donald Trump is the biggest threat our country faces right now. Even Bernie agrees. I like Jill Stein too and am registered independent, but we all need to get it together here.
Trump is not the biggest threat we face. In my opinion, it is isis..and also the national debt. Noone wants to cut back on goverment incentives but the money is simply not there.
The level of hate at the RNC is astounding.
It really is. It’s just so upsetting that people who actually have voting privilege, that aren’t subject to racist gerrymandering or racist voting policies would just throw that opportunity in the trash. So much reform is needed on so many levels but third parties must start at a local level. Green Party candidates must start to run at a state level and get involved at a community level. Ditto for angry Sanders supporters. Put their money where their mouth is and do something for their community if they refuse to vote. I respect the third party momentum and get it, but there’s one clear choice here when it comes to the national election. The unapologetic racist, homophobic, misogynist, bigotry is simply disgusting. The hate is so beyond comprehension.
I tuned into the convention for a few minutes last night. It was really disheartening to watch. The hate was overwhelming. It used to be that the two parties would disagree on policy. Now we have Trump and his gang ratcheting up the hate to a whole new scary level.
You’re seeing a mostly privileged group of people watching the American empire falter around them. It’s not as shocking as we’d like to believe.
Looks like they negotiated with one of their staff to take one for the team.
Wow. I just read that. They’ve made this a mess with all of their explanations. And it’s one of Trump’s “female” staff that is taking the fall also. That “To Whom It May Concern” letter is a hoot. And now it’s all about how Melania admires Michelle Obama and read those passages to her as examples and the “writer” wrote some of the phrasing down and included it in the draft that never should have made it to the final speech and how it’s how it’s all this writer’s fault and she apologizes.. “Phrasing.” LOL
It only gets more bizarre with this group. I love the HuffingtonPost’s headline: Trump Staffer Falls on Sword. Melania Speech “My Mistake.”
and yet, I ask again…(not you, just rhetorically…)
who added the Rick Roll? her story would be believable if not for that part.
To Chris Christie I say: So, if I quoted word for word an entire page from Henry David Thoreau, which might only represent 1% of his work, that’s not plagiarism?
While the plagiarism is immoral, it has clouded over the real danger of the RNC platform. Its fileld with blatant open racism. Steve King making his remarks about white civilization should be at the forefront. Rachel from he Real World getting booed when she said her parents immigrated from Mexico. The constant stream of illegal talk, even called them them illegal aliens. The constant talk of Muslims. yet, very people are talking about t and are focusing on the plagerism. We just nominated a Nationalist whicj hate groups are vehemently for and are supporting. This should be the top story. I actually wish we had a so called Liberal media that would call Trump campaign exactly what it is, a Nationalist movement. It should scare us all and voting this year is more important than it has been since 1968.
I agree.
All this speech drama is overshadowing Tamron Hall’s wonderful live interview with celebrity speaker Chachi/Charles yesterday. It is seven fabulous minutes of calling out hypocrisy.
The first thing she mentions is Melania’s speech, and he conveniently does know / cannot comment.
Oh maaaan thank you for name checking that clip. I watched and it’s incredible. I would feel better if they held politicians’ feet to the fire as intensely, but given how angry Scott Baio’s twitter feed is, I’m cool with Tamron making him sweat.
Yes..and michelle took her words from someone as well..its very common in the political circle. That being said, plagarized parts aside, its a pretty remarkable american story. This woman came from nothing and immigrated to the united states..learning an entirely new language and assimilating in the process. I would think the left wing everyone is welcome to the usa crowd would be celebrating a woman immigrant finding her way to possible first lady.
A much younger model marrying a rich older man who is on his third wife. Okay.
Melania is not only The Donald’s third wife, she is also his second mistress that he cheated on his second wife with. And his second wife was his first mistress that he cheated on his first wife with.
Regardless, funny though the situation is, I hope it blows over soon so we can get back to laughing at/viewing with alarm her husband, who unlike Melania wants to be President and will be able to start WWIII. She really shouldn’t even have been put in front of the microphone. She doesn’t have the experience or qualifications for that. At least she plagiarized from someone far better qualified for the Presidency than The Donald. And her speech was really the only non-fear-mongering one in the bunch. Somebody put together a video collage of the others and it was horrible. They were all screaming and seeing violent Muslims and foreigners under every couch cushion.
…Because she has to put up with that orangutan on top of her from time to time. Really, not the most dignified immigrant story. (Both my parents are immigrants, BTW.)
I knew her story wouldnt be supported..i dont care whether your parents were immigrants or not..that is so rude to lessen or downplay her story in any way. She just came here in the 90s…whether you agree with her personal choices or not…it would be remarkable, and in my eyes very american, to have the first lady ever be an immigrant.
Rude? Nope. Simply descriptive. She’s a gold digger, which, OK, is one way of making a living, but don’t expect me to find particular merit in it. Prospective first lady by way of sexual favors to a much older man, whoa, how inspiring and heroic.
Lambda, please the very thought turns my stomach, yuck!
It is not against the law to be a gold digger, just as it is not against the law to not find a gold diggers story inspiring.
i@Tami, she came here in the ’90s after having been a model for the fashion houses in Milan and Paris and then relocating on a visa to New York City to model. I don’t get how you think it was such a great inspiring immigration story to the U.S. for a model to then move on to NYC in ’96 to continue modeling after having been in cities as great as Milan and Paris she was in working, and then within two years bagged a rich older man after she came here.
Tami, it is not “downplaying of her story” as an immigrant to call her out for plagiarizing. Whatever her background, she had resources at her disposal to make sure her speech was original. Today’s “explanation” is that the speech writer made notes about speeches that inspired Melania and inadvertently incorporated them into the speech. Melania didn’t recognize those passages that supposedly stood out for her so much that she mentioned them to the speechwriter? How is it rude to call her out on that?
Plus, as people have said again and again here, Melania’s stealing parts of Michelle Obama’s speech was a bad gaff. But the bigger issue is the Trump campaign/RNC’s response to it: deny, deny, blame someone else, attack Clinton, deny, speak nonsense, attack Clinton, get outraged, etc etc.
If they had just said: “oh, wow, we screwed up. sorry” this would have been a non-story.
@Tami, Melania didn’t tell much of her story. She chose to tell Michelle Obama’s. As for first immigrant first lady, that was accomplished in 1825 by Louisa Adams. Louisa was a fascinating woman.
“and michelle took her words from someone as well”
nope, been debunked.
read on.
http://www.snopes.com/michelle-obama-copied-her-2008-dnc-speech-from-saul-alinsky/
(hope the link is OK)
Michelle didn’t plagiarize her speech. If you care to watch it in its entirety, you will see how she expanded on those words by weaving in her own experiences. Even after blatantly copying Michelle’s speech, Melania gave us no insight into who she is or any of her struggles. All we know of her is what we have heard from the tabloids. And sorry, I am very much for immigrants. However I don’t think a woman coming to the US to be a model and marrying a rich man is remarkable.
Utilizing a similar line expressing sentiments completely opposite of the intent of the purported lifted material is not plagiarism by academic standards. Her immigration story is irrelevant to me because the FLOTUS is not involved in political decision making.
Tami…Louisa Adams the wife of John Quincy Adams was the first First Lady born outside the United States. Melania would not be first and I think a lot of people don’t find her story ad inspiring as those of women who work two jobs cleaning bathrooms to send their kids to school.
Donald Trump said in an interview, I think it was on Larry King, that she was at a party at Fashion week in nyc, and he was there and he basically said he seen her and said and i am quoting the exact words ‘I want that one’, so it shows the way he looks at women, and I am sure she saw an easy way to stay in t he states by hitching up with him, theres no way she would be with him if it was for all his money, i am pretty sure about that.
He was at dinner with someone else and still went and got her number. The sleaze and the goldigger. Match made in money heaven.
The more that comes to light about international modeling” and traveling in the circles of these older, rich benefactors, the less inspiring I find stories like hers. Especially in light of the whole architecture degree being (allegedly) untrue.
If we are going to put Hillary in jail for Benghazi, then what are we going to do to Bush and Cheney? Death sentences? If it weren’t for them, there wouldn’t have been a Benghazi attack. So much for the “party of responsibility”!
I also cringed at the Hillary = jealous woman. Please! First, her camp didn’t break this story and second, she’s running against Trump not Melania. How can any sane woman want to vote for that misogynistic creep??
Trump is the one who doesn’t NEED the job, but he’s also the one who WANTS the job the most.