By Gregory Krieg and Eugene Scott, CNN
Donald Trump’s campaign manager denied allegations Tuesday that Melania Trump plagiarized a Michelle Obama speech on the first night of the Republican National Convention, calling the accusation “just really absurd.”
“To think that she would do something like that knowing how scrutinized her speech was going to be last night is just really absurd,” Trump’s campaign chairman Paul Manafort told CNN’s Chris Cuomo on “New Day.”
At least one passage in Trump’s speech Monday night plagiarized from Obama’s address to the Democratic National Convention in 2008.
Side-by-side comparisons of the transcripts show the text in Trump’s address following, nearly to the word, the would-be future first lady’s own from the first night of the Democratic convention in Denver nearly eight years ago.
Sources familiar with the campaign’s handling of Melania Trump’s speech identify top Manafort deputy Rick Gates as the person inside the campaign who oversaw the entire speech process for Melania Trump.
Gates is denying he oversaw the Melania speech process.
When CNN’s Jim Acosta asked Gates if he oversaw the Melania speech process, he said “absolutely not.”
Two sources said that Donald Trump is furious over the episode.
New Jersey governor and Donald Trump ally Chris Christie defended the speech, saying, “There’s no way that Melania Trump was plagiarizing Michelle Obama’s speech.”
“I just don’t see it,” Christie told CNN’s Jamie Gangel in an interview Tuesday, adding later, “If we’re talking about 7% of a speech, that was really, universally considered to be a good performance by Melania. I know her. There’s no way that Melania Trump was plagiarizing Michelle Obama’s speech.”
Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus said at a Bloomberg Politics event Tuesday morning he’d “probably” fire whoever was responsible for including plagiarized quotes, though he added, “It all kinda depends on the circumstances and how these things are written.”
Manafort said on “New Day” the words Melania used were not “cribbed” but are common words.
“There’s no cribbing of Michelle Obama’s speech. These were common words and values. She cares about her family,” Manafort said. “To think that she’d be cribbing Michelle Obama’s words is crazy.”
Read more at http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/19/politics/melania-trump-michelle-obama-speech/index.html
