Yesterday Trump campaign honcho Paul Manafort (a) discarded the narrative about a “team of writers” being the principle authors of Monday night’s partly plagiarized speech delivered by Melania Trump in favor of (b) saying it was “Melania’s speech.” (What happened to the “team”?)
That all changed this morning when Melania’s speechwriter Meredith McIver accepted blame for inserting Michelle Obama‘s words into the speech and offered her resignation, which of course Donald Trump refused to accept. N.Y. Times reporter Maggie Haberman broke the story an hour ago. It includes quotes McIver’s statement on the matter, taken from the Trump website:
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“In working with Melania on her recent first lady speech, we discussed many people who inspired her and messages she wanted to share with the American people,” McIver wrote.
“A person she has always liked is Michelle Obama. Over the phone, [Melania] read me some passages from Mrs. Obama’s speech, as examples. 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 Melania and the Trumps as well as to Mrs. Obama. No harm was meant.”
McIver wrote that she has “offered my resignation to Mr. Trump and the Trump family but they rejected it…Mr. Trump told me that people make innocent mistakes and we learn and grow from these experiences.”
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