Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said he would “probably” fire Melania Trump’s speechwriter following claims that her convention speech plagiarized Michelle Obama’s remarks from 2008.
“I don’t blame her,” Priebus said of Melania at a Bloomberg Politics breakfast in Cleveland on the second day of the Republican National Convention. “Some of these things are pretty common themes.”
If it were his decision, that speechwriter would be axed, Priebus said.
Priebus also predicted the “distraction” surrounding the speech by the wife of presumed GOP nominee Donald Trump would’t last long.
“The distraction gets you off message a little bit this morning, but I think we’ll get back to action this afternoon,” he said. He called the speech a “great immigrant story” and “very inspirational.”
Within hours of her Monday night speech, Melania Trump faced charges that she lifted parts of her remarks from first lady Michelle Obama’s 2008 speech to the Democratic National Convention.
The Trump campaign immediately denied the accusations, saying her team of writers “took notes on her life’s inspirations” and in some instances “included fragments that reflected her own thinking.”
