Woman responsible for writing Melania Trump’s address admits she DID ‘plagiarize’ Michelle Obama
Michelle McIver, who works for the Republican nominee, says she took part of 2008 speech by accident
THE woman responsible for assisting Melania Trump with her address has admitted she DID use parts of Michelle Obama’s Democratic Convention speech – but it wasn’t intentional.
Meredith McIver is an employee at Donald Trumps real estate company – the address on Monday drew criticism as around six lines were similar to the wife of the current US president’s which she gave in 2008.
She offered to quit her position on Tuesday but the Trump family refused to accept her resignation.
McIver works as an in-house staff writer for the Trump Organization – she released a statement on Wednesday saying she wrote down portions of the Obama speech and Mrs. Trump read them to her over the phone.
These were then included in a draft.
She admitted in her statement: “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 said when she offered her resignation, Trump told her: “People make innocent mistakes and that we learn and grow from these experiences.
“I asked to put out this statement because I did not like seeing the way this was distracting from Mr. Trump’s historic campaign for president and Melania’s beautiful message and presentation.”
It was which identified McIver as the person who had written the first draft of Melania Trump’s speech.
She has worked on the books ‘”How to Get Rich” and “Think Like a Billionaire.”
It seems Trump was delighted with all the publicity the speech drew – and took to social media on Wednesday to express his delight.
He tweeted: “[g]ood news is Melania’s speech got more publicity than any in the history of politics especially if you believe that all press is good press!”
He then went on: “The media is spending more time doing a forensic analysis of Melania’s speech than the F.B.I. spent on Hillary’s emails.”
Meanwhile on Wednesday the White took the moral high ground on the speech.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said it showed Americans admire similar values in their political leaders.