| Revision as of 21:01, 20 July 2016 edit96.59.186.103 (talk) + background on her with cited sources← Previous edit | Revision as of 21:05, 20 July 2016 edit undo96.59.186.103 (talk) In response to comments by another editor, claiming my change went beyond what really was (exaggerated), I am toning down the description, which, this time, I think it more accurate. (Good faith edit)Next edit → | ||
| Line 11: | Line 11: | ||
| According to sources cited by the ''New York Times'', Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, commissioned a speech by two speechwriters, ] and John McConnell, who sent Melania a draft. Melania rejected it, and worked on her own speech. She got help from ], who worked on some of Donald Trump’s books, including ''Think Like a Billionaire''. In researching the speech, she read previous convention speeches delivered by candidates’ spouses.<ref>, By MAGGIE HABERMAN and MICHAEL BARBARO, New York Times, JULY 19, 2016</ref> | According to sources cited by the ''New York Times'', Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, commissioned a speech by two speechwriters, ] and John McConnell, who sent Melania a draft. Melania rejected it, and worked on her own speech. She got help from ], who worked on some of Donald Trump’s books, including ''Think Like a Billionaire''. In researching the speech, she read previous convention speeches delivered by candidates’ spouses.<ref>, By MAGGIE HABERMAN and MICHAEL BARBARO, New York Times, JULY 19, 2016</ref> | ||
| To be more precise, McIver places some of the blame on Ms. Trump: "In a statement issued by the campaign, Meredith McIver took the blame but made it clear that Mrs. Trump knew the passages were from the first lady's speech."<ref>{{cite web|last=OHLEMACHER |first=STEPHEN |url=http://www.theledger.com/article/20160720/NEWS/160729994?p=all&tc=pgall&tc=ar |title=Trump speechwriter apologizes for Melania Trump's speech |website=TheLedger.com |date=2016-07-20 |accessdate=2016-07-20}}</ref> | |||
| McIver is a staff writer for ], author, former ballerina,<ref>{{cite web|last=Jane |first=Emily |url=http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/07/melania-trump-rnc-speech-ballerina |title=Is a Ballerina to Blame for Melania Trump’s Plagiarized Speech? |publisher=] |date=2014-01-02 |accessdate=2016-07-20}}</ref> and registered ]. <ref>{{cite web|last=Otis |first=Ginger Adams |url=http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/trump-staff-writer-meredith-mciver-registered-democrat-article-1.2718891 |title=Donald Trump staff writer Meredith McIver who apologized for Melania’s plagiarism scandal is a registered Democrat |publisher=] |date=2016-07-20 |accessdate=2016-07-20}}</ref> | McIver is a staff writer for ], author, former ballerina,<ref>{{cite web|last=Jane |first=Emily |url=http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/07/melania-trump-rnc-speech-ballerina |title=Is a Ballerina to Blame for Melania Trump’s Plagiarized Speech? |publisher=] |date=2014-01-02 |accessdate=2016-07-20}}</ref> and registered ]. <ref>{{cite web|last=Otis |first=Ginger Adams |url=http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/trump-staff-writer-meredith-mciver-registered-democrat-article-1.2718891 |title=Donald Trump staff writer Meredith McIver who apologized for Melania’s plagiarism scandal is a registered Democrat |publisher=] |date=2016-07-20 |accessdate=2016-07-20}}</ref> | ||
Revision as of 21:05, 20 July 2016
 | It has been suggested that this article be merged into 2016 Republican National Convention#Melania Trump's speech. (Discuss) Proposed since July 2016. |
 | This article contains too many or overly lengthy quotations. Please help summarize the quotations. Consider transferring direct quotations to Wikiquote or excerpts to Wikisource. (July 2016) |
| External image | |
|---|---|
 "Comparing Melania Trump's Speech in 2016 with Michelle Obama's in 2008", The Washington Post, July 19, 2016. Some portions of the two speeches were "very similar" and other parts were nearly identical. |
On July 18, 2016, Melania Trump gave a speech on the first day of the 2016 Republican National Convention. The speech contained a paragraph that was nearly identical to a paragraph of Michelle Obama's speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.
Background
Before delivering the speech, Trump had told NBC News' that she and a speechwriter had been "working on the speech" for the past "five to six weeks". In that same NBC News interview Trump stated that she had "read it once over" and that she "wrote it with as little help as possible."
According to sources cited by the New York Times, Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, commissioned a speech by two speechwriters, Matthew Scully and John McConnell, who sent Melania a draft. Melania rejected it, and worked on her own speech. She got help from Meredith McIver, who worked on some of Donald Trump’s books, including Think Like a Billionaire. In researching the speech, she read previous convention speeches delivered by candidates’ spouses.
To be more precise, McIver places some of the blame on Ms. Trump: "In a statement issued by the campaign, Meredith McIver took the blame but made it clear that Mrs. Trump knew the passages were from the first lady's speech."
McIver is a staff writer for The Trump Organization, author, former ballerina, and registered Democrat.
Reaction
Following Trump's speech, various media outlets reported similarities as alleged plagiarism. Chris Harrick, the vice president of Turnitin, discovered that Trump used about 6% of Michelle Obama's words and found two types of plagiarism, "clone" and "find and replace". Various media outlets suggested that members of Donald Trump's presidential campaign should respond to the accusations, which they did a few hours after the speech in the form of the following statement by the campaign's senior communications advisor, Jason Miller:
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.
Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, described the speech as "inspirational" but said if plagiarism were found, he thought "it certainly seems reasonable" to fire the person who wrote the speech. Paul Manafort, Donald Trump's campaign chairman, called it a "great speech" and said "obviously Michelle Obama feels very similar sentiments toward her family". He later said "to think that she would be cribbing Michelle Obama’s words is crazy", adding "This is once again an example of when a woman threatens Hillary Clinton, she seeks out to demean her and take her down. It's not going to work against Melania Trump." Sean Spicer, director of communications for the Republican National Committee, defended the speech by saying that similar statements have existed before her speech such as quotes by John Legend, Kid Rock, and Twilight Sparkle from My Little Pony. Legend himself responded to Spicer on Twitter by tweeting "I would very much like to be excluded from this narrative". Meanwhile, Tara Strong, the voice actress for Twilight Sparkle, commented that "Plagiarism is not magic".
David Lauter from the Los Angeles Times stated that while these allegations are unlikely to cost Trump votes, the distraction is unhelpful, referring to it as a "lost opportunity" for the campaign.
On July 20, 2016, McIver issued the following statement:
In working with Melania 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 final speech.
References
- ^ Tumulty, Karen; Costa, Robert; DelReal, Jose (July 19, 2016). "Scrutiny of Melania Trump's speech follows plagiarism allegations". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 19, 2016.
- Bump, Philip (July 19, 2016). "Melania Trump's speech appears to have cribbed from Michelle Obama's in 2008". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 19, 2016.
- Haberman, Maggie; Rappeport, Alan; Healy, Patrick (July 19, 2016). "Melania Trump's Speech Bears Striking Similarities to Michelle Obama's in 2008". The New York Times. Retrieved July 19, 2016.
- Stump, Scott (July 19, 2016). "Melania Trump on convention speech: 'I wrote it with as little help as possible'". Today. Retrieved July 19, 2016.
- "Exclusive: The Trumps speak with Matt Lauer". MSNBC. July 18, 2016. Retrieved July 19, 2016.
- How Melania Trump’s Speech Veered Off Course and Caused an Uproar, By MAGGIE HABERMAN and MICHAEL BARBARO, New York Times, JULY 19, 2016
- OHLEMACHER, STEPHEN (2016-07-20). "Trump speechwriter apologizes for Melania Trump's speech". TheLedger.com. Retrieved 2016-07-20.
- Jane, Emily (2014-01-02). "Is a Ballerina to Blame for Melania Trump's Plagiarized Speech?". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 2016-07-20.
- Otis, Ginger Adams (2016-07-20). "Donald Trump staff writer Meredith McIver who apologized for Melania's plagiarism scandal is a registered Democrat". New York Daily News. Retrieved 2016-07-20.
- Engel, Pamela (July 19, 2016). "Melania Trump's speech appeared to lift from parts of Michelle Obama's 2008 convention address". Retrieved July 19, 2016.
- Allen, Cooper (July 19, 2016). "Was Melania Trump's speech plagiarized from Michelle Obama?". USA Today. Retrieved July 19, 2016.
- Collins, Eliza (July 19, 2016). "Professors say Melania's speech would count as plagiarism". Retrieved July 20, 2016.
- Korn, Melissa; Belkin, Douglas (July 20, 2016). "Was Melania Trump Speech 'Common Words' Or Plagiarism? Professors Parse". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved July 19, 2016.
- Johnson, Ted (July 19, 2016). "RNC Chairman Reince Priebus: It'd be 'reasonable' to fire Melania Trump's speechwriter". Boston Herald. Retrieved July 19, 2016.
- Haberman, Maggie; Rappeport, Alan; Healy, Patrick; Martin, Jonathan (July 19, 2016). "Questions Over Melania Trump's Speech Set Off Finger-Pointing". The New York Times. Retrieved July 19, 2016.
- Tatum, Sophie (July 19, 2016). "RNC official cites 'My Little Pony' to defend Melania Trump". CNN. Retrieved July 19, 2016.
- Sarlin, Benjy; Tur, Katy; Vitali, Ali (July 19, 2016). "Trump Campaign Struggles to Manage Melania Trump Speech Fallout". Retrieved July 19, 2016.
- Axelrod, Joshua (July 19, 2016). "'My Little Pony' voice actress on Melania: 'Plagiarism is not magic'". Retrieved July 20, 2016.
- David Lauter (July 19, 2016). "Why the plagiarism allegations against Melania Trump matter for her husband's campaign". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 19, 2016.
- The Trump Organization. Letter. Meredith McIver. July 20, 2016.
- Haberman, Maggie (July 20, 2016). "Melania Trump's Speechwriter Takes Responsibility for Lifted Remarks". The New York Times. Retrieved July 20, 2016.