Donald Trump’s campaign chairman Paul Manafort countered reports that Melania Trump lifted language from a Michelle Obama speech Tuesday morning, insisting “there was no cribbing” of the First Lady’s 2008 remarks.
Melania Trump “hit it out of the park” during her speech Monday night talking about “common values,” Manafort told CNN’s Chris Cuomo on “New Day.” The candidate’s wife addressed thousands on the floor of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, and reporters noted that a passage in her speech repeated several phrases from Michelle Obama’s 2008 convention speech in Denver.
But Manafort denied there was any plagiarism at all.
“There’s no cribbing of Michelle Obama’s speech,” he said. “To think that she would be cribbing Michelle Obama’s words is crazy.”
Melania Trump discussed the values her parents raised her with in her convention speech: “From a young age, 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.”
The words were almost identical to ones in Michelle 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.”
Trump’s speech also mirrored Obama’s in the next passage. Trump said Monday that “we need to pass those lessons on to the many generations to follow. 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.”
Obama made a similar call in her speech “to 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.”