Speech writer offers to resign, Trump refuses, after plagiarism debacle
Posted July 20, 2016 1:42 pm.
Last Updated July 20, 2016 11:32 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A speech writer for Melania Trump offered to resign but Donald Trump refused to accept it after a plagiarism debacle at the Republican National Convention.
On Monday night, Melania Trump gave a speech that included two passages that “matched nearly word-for-word the speech that First Lady Michelle Obama delivered in 2008 at the Democratic National Convention.
The passages in question focused on lessons that Trump’s wife says she learned from her parents and the relevance of their lessons in her experience as a mother,” The Associated Press reported.
On Thursday, Meredith McIver issued a statement saying she was behind the error, but Donald Trump forgave her. She also made reference to Melania Trump’s “beautiful message.”
“Mr. Trump told me that people make innocent mistakes and that we learn and grow from these experiences,” she wrote.
“I asked to put out this statement because I did not like seeing the way this distracting from Mr. Trump’s historic campaign for president and Melania’s beautiful message and presentation.”
McIver, who said she is an in-house staff writer at the Trump Organization, explained that the mistake happened when Melania Trump read McIver passages over the phone. Melania Trump had selected some of Michelle Obama’s speech as an example.
“I wrote them down and later included some of the phrasing in the draft that ultimately became the final speech. I did not check Mrs. Obama’s speeches. This was my mistake,” McIver wrote.
“No harm was meant.”
Click here to read the entire statement from Meredith McIver.
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Melania Trump RNC address mirrors Michelle Obama’s 2008 speech
CityNews reporters Shauna Hunt and Avery Haines are in Cleveland covering the Republican national convention.
See their updates below.
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