Melania Trump’s Speechwriter Takes Blame for Plagiarism

2016-07-19_2-20-56

A speechwriter for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has accepted blame for the plagiarism controversy surrounding his wife Melania’s speech Monday night at the Republican National Convention.

Meredith McIver, an in-house staff writer with the Trump organization, released a statement Wednesday morning accepting blame for the speech which contained similarities to an address Michelle Obama delivered at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Read the entire statement below:

My name is Meredith McIver and I’m an in-house staff writer at the Trump Organization. I am also a longtime friend and admirer of the Trump family.

In working with Melania Trump on her recent First Lady speech, we discussed many people who inspired her and messages she wanted to share with the American people. A person she has always liked is Michelle Obama. Over the phone, she 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 finale 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.

Yesterday, I offered my resignation to Mr. Trump and the Trump family, but they rejected it. Mr. Trump told me that people make innocent mistakes and that we learn and grow from these experiences.

I asked to put out this statement because I did not like seeing the way this was distracting from Mr. Trump’s historic campaign for president and Melania’s beautiful message and presentation.

I apologize for the confusion and hysteria my mistake has caused. Today, more than ever, I am honored to work for such a great family. I personally admire the way Mr. Trump has handled this situation and I am grateful for his understanding.

Sources close to the Trump campaign tell NBC News that the original draft of Mrs Trump’s speech did not include the section that appears to contain phrases lifted from Obama’s speech.

Matthew Scully, a veteran speechwriter who drafted Sarah Palin’s 2008 convention speech, submitted the original draft to the Trump campaign. The first six paragraphs of the text delivered by Mrs. Trump were mostly written by Scully, as well as a significant chunk of the ending.

Mrs. Trump told NBC News Monday, just hours before delivering the speech, that she largely wrote it herself.

“I read it once over, and that’s all because I wrote it with as little help as possible,” she told Today’s Matt Lauer.

You would think, when Mrs. Trump read the speech over, she would have seen the similarities herself. She bears at least some of the responsibility here. There is also the fibbing about writing most of the speech herself…

Via NBC News, The Wrap

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