CLEVELAND — By the time Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus gaveled in the party’s convention Tuesday afternoon, accusations of plagiarism against Donald Trump’s campaign were in the back of most delegates’ minds.
The controversy began late Monday night, after a campaign staffer for Hillary Clinton noticed a series of striking similarities between Melania Trump’s speech to the GOP delegation and remarks delivered by Michelle Obama at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Trump campaign officials have dismissed the accusations, paying tribute to the first lady’s speech but denying any wrongdoing.
“We don’t believe there’s anything in that speech that doesn’t reflect her thinking and we’re comfortable that the words she used were personal to her,” campaign chairman Paul Manafort told reporters first thing Monday morning.
Asked about the controversy on the convention floor Tuesday night, most delegates sided with the Trump campaign and blasted the media for peddling a “made up” controversy.
“I think if [Melania] said ‘I have a cat’ and if Michelle Obama had previously said in a speech ‘I have a cat,’ that the media would accuse her of plagiarism,” Rhode Island delegate and state Sen. Ed O’Neill told the Washington Examiner.
“It’s unfortunate that the narrative has gone in a different direction because frankly, I thought it was a great speech,” said Texas delegate Mark Dunham. “Mostly the media has been the ones talking about this. As far as I can tell, everyone was really impressed with her and the way she delivered this speech – especially when you consider she was doing it in a language foreign from her own.”
Dunham dismissed questions about whether the speechwriter behind Melania’s remarks should face consequences for his oversight. “I’ll leave that to the folks running the campaign,” he said.
“Any time you have a wife and a potential first lady talking about her husband, it’s really obvious that she’s going to use similar terms to describe him,” Cody Hoefert, co-chair of the Iowa GOP, told the Examiner. “So I think it’s much ado about nothing.”
Hoefert was so impressed with Melania, he suggested the Trump campaign “make sure [she] has an opportunity to address” other topics in the coming months. America’s educational system, he said, would be a good place to start.
Not every delegate said the uproar over Melania Trump’s speech was a product of the media. Illinois delegate Christian Gramm, who supported Ted Cruz in his home state’s primary, panned the Trump campaign as guilty of “complete plagiarism.”
“I think it’s just terrible,” he said. “At this level, you’re going to have a paid speech writer that knows what they’re doing. For them to come up with plagiarized – it’s a complete failure.”
Two more Trump family members will take the stage Tuesday night to speak to the Republican nominee’s qualifications. Trump’s eldest son, Donald Jr., and his daughter, Tiffany, will speak shortly after their father formally receives the GOP presidential nomination.
