A speechwriter for Donald Trump's business has taken the blame for apparent plagiarism in Melania Trump's 2016 speech at the Republican National Convention. After all the excuses for Melania Trump's plagiarism of Michelle Obama's 2008 Democratic National Convention Speech, including denial and blaming it on Hillary Clinton, we get a mea culpa from Meredith McIver, a Trump employee on Trump Organizational letterhead.
NBC news reports "McIver twice called the inclusion of language from Michelle Obama's 2008 speech "my mistake," seemingly contradicting the campaign's earlier insistence that no significant plagiarism occurred."
"According to McIver, Mrs. Trump "always liked" the First Lady and passed on her convention remarks as an "inspiration" for her own speech. Somehow, the passage ended up in the final version largely unchanged."
"Over the phone, she read me some passages from Mrs. Obama's speech as examples," McIver wrote. "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 and I feel terrible for the chaos I have caused to Melania and the Trumps, as well as to Mrs. Obama."
While, it is touching to see words indicating cross-party admiration from Republican Trump boosters Melania Trump and Meredith McIver for the Democratic First Lady Michelle Obama, it strains credulity that the theft of Michelle Obama's speech was a mistaken tribute to her or that Melanie has all along been a secret Michelle Obama fan. Should Melania ever sit down for an interview on the subject, here are some suggested questions for Lesley Stahl or whomever should have the fun of this questioning:
1. Melania, as an immigrant yourself, having escaped the hardships of the communist Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to become an American citizen in 2006, do you admire Michelle Obama for her speech at City College NY speaking to immigrants about hard work and success in America? How do you square your admiration of Michelle's support for immigrants in America with your support of your husband's anti-immigrant campaign rhetoric? How do you admire them both?
2. Do you admire Michelle Obama's Harvard Law degree? Your education got interrupted by your modeling career, including nude modeling. Of course that's your choice, but why did you feel you had to lie about graduating from architecture school? Is the truth secondary to appearances?
3. If you admired the strong feminist Michelle Obama so much, how can you support your husband's anti-woman campaign and support amongst his followers for calling Michelle ugly? Did you see Barbara Bush comment on CNN that she doesn't see how any woman could vote for Trump? Do you believe that women need to look a certain way to be "successful" as your husband has indicated?
4. You began your relationship with Donald Trump while he was still married to his second wife. Do you believe that honesty is an important quality in a president and in a first lady? Is that part of what you respect in the Obamas?
5. As a Michelle Obama fan, do you read her speeches or watch them? Was Michelle's Democratic National Convention Speech in 2008 one of your favorites? Is that why you read it to your speech writer over the phone and chose to include it in your own remarks on behalf of your husband? Because it was so memorable to you? Were you thinking of Michelle while you spoke her words?
Alas, we will certainly never hear these questions asked or answered. The biggest tribute of all to Michelle and Barack Obama would be to stop attacking their integrity on place of birth, religion etc... and to stop the Trump campaign of lies and hate-mongering to the American people.