CLEVELAND – A Republican National Committee spokesman used a popular children’s toy franchise on Tuesday to defend Donald Trump’s speechwriters against allegations that they plagiarized portions of Melania Trump’s speech at the GOP convention.
“When it comes to the speech, let’s actually put this in perspective,” RNC communications director Sean Spicer told CNN Tuesday afternoon. “In a 2,000-word statement, we’re talking about 70 words [and] three passages. Melania Trump said, ‘You work hard for what you get in life.’ John Legend said, ‘Work hard to be anything you want in life.’ Kid Rock said, ‘Work hard to be anything you want in life.'”
Spicer continued, “Melania Trump said, ‘The strength of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.’ Twilight Sparkle from My Little Pony said, ‘This is your dream. Anything you can do in your dreams, you can do now.'”
Several sentences in the speech Trump’s wife delivered on Monday appear to have been lifted from remarks delivered by Michelle Obama at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. The Trump campaign has said it has no plans to fire the staffer who wrote Melania’s speech.
“I mean, if we want to take a bunch of phrases and run them through Google and see who else has said them, I could come up with a list in five minutes,” the party official told Wolf Blitzer. “That’s what this is.”
Spicer said it was “sad” that members of the media spent much of Tuesday discussing the possible implications of a potential first lady delivering a speech that contained plagiarized portions.
“We’ve taken this amazing moment with the world introduction of Melania Trump and allowed the Clinton campaign to say, ‘hey, we Googled a bunch of phrases and matched it up to what Melania Trump said,'” he claimed.
“I think Mrs. Obama gave a great speech, I think Melania Trump hit it out of the park,” Spicer said.
