What do you think about Mrs. Trump copying Mrs. Obama's speech?
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chyna (
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July 19th, 2016
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66 Answers
Friggin weird. I can’t imagine it was an accident – too similar – but I also can’t imagine why on earth anyone would think that was a good idea.
I’m wondering if a speech writer did it on purpose to make her look bad.
I saw a brief interview with the campaign manager this AM who said “I don’t remember what Michelle Obama said 8 years ago” which smacks to me of speech writers saying “Nobody remembers what the First Lady said 8 years ago”.
IMO, it doesn’t really matter that the focused sentences really were somewhat clichéd, it was an ill-advised oversight.
@chyna Fear of internal sabotage has probably already set in. LoL. It’s the mark of the megalomaniac. If he is elected, there will be many purges in the next four years. Ah, those halcyon years of Stalin, Hitler and Mao. So nice. Hey, the clothes were cool, though.
@chyna That’s my new favorite theory. Oh man that would be hilarious.
Everything about Trump and this political season is so outrageous – just another teflon moment. What’s so scary is the number of followers who believe the emperor is wearing clothes.
This is the type of issue people are ok with getting worked up about?
Donald only hires the best, so his team copied the best!
I’d fire the speech writer. Even if it is a bazaar rare incident of two people writing almost exactly the same few paragraphs, the speech writer should have caught it. Didn’t they study previous first lads speeches? If not, then they should have.
~ ~ ~ “Class act” again for the Trump Team. jk
About what I would expect.
Would’ve only been better if she did it in black-face.
The speech writer should be fired. He was too lazy to write a good speech for Melania so he copied Michelle’s, handed it to Melania and she trusted him. I admit that I’m furious over this . Are we to believe that Melania had access to Michelle’s speech and copied it for herself? Even I wouldn’t do something that dumb.
Whoever “wrote” the “speech” so obviously copied it that they should be immediately fired and not for the plagiarism, but more importantly for being so stupid as to believe that no one would notice.
The Trump Team is currently denies there is any plagiarism, only similarities in fragments !
Their definition of plagiarism must be, word for word copying the speech OY Vey
Trump has made a living taking things that belong to other people by whatever it takes, the end justifying the means. Why should we expect less of his family, handlers or campaign.
I haven’t had a chance to hear or see the entire speech. I’m not sure I can say the speech was plagiarized. This part of it seems to have been though. The word “bond” puts it over the top for me.
If Michelle had plagiarized 3 paragraphs from a ten minute speech (I have no idea how long it was) I’d still have voted for Obama.
I must say, it has made for fun times watching the various Republican operatives try to justify/deny/explain the coincidence.
This was no coincidence. Some flunky was assigned this – there is no way that Mrs. Trump wrote it herself.
And that flunky, who was probably a C+ student in college, went digging for something to say, and he took a short cut, thinking that nobody would ever know.
Oops.
If the campaign had said, “Wow, we can’t believe we let that get through. We’ve fired the writer who did the plagiarism,” it would be much less of an issue. It would be a very surprising response considering the antics we’ve gotten used to, but it would be a much better response (even tactful, even respectful but when have we seen either of those qualities from the Trump campaign).
That they’re trying to deny plagiarism is predictable (they’ve used this denial-sledgehammer for everything and it has worked so far) but it’s beyond absurd. We’ve got the speeches side by side. They changed phrasing like “Barack and I” (which would be a giveaway), cut out a few words that added nuance, added a minute reference to Melania and Trump’s son, and changed “reach of their dreams” to “strength of their dreams.” It’s trying to take away markers that would indicate Michelle while keeping Michelle’s phrasing and sentiment, it’s not even well masked, and it’s beyond arrogant that they thought they’d get away with this in such a contentious and technologically connected election.
What upsets me is that I know people will take Trump’s denial at face value, and continue to say that he will be a straightforward, honest anti-politician, and this plagiarism really is (somehow, who knows how, but who cares) Clinton’s fault.
On the news this morning I saw a reporter ask her if she wrote her speech and she said “yes, most of it.” I don’t know if this was before or after her speech.
@zenvelo Yeah, that’s what I was trying to reference… link is better
I’m shaking my head in disbelief after reading what my Republican friends are saying. They all say it’s just a coincidence.
Sounds like a trollbait maneuver of some sort.
I can’t believe nobody is making anything about the fact that the Russians could actually be in the Whitehouse. How could this happen?
Wouldn’t you think Trump could have found an American wife?
Wow. This thread keeps getting better.
Actually, the point that Englush is her second language and she didn’t come here until her late teens I think, means she absolutely had someone at minimum edit her speech. Even people who are English as their first language who are editors themselves would probably have a fellow editor or writer look at a speech that was to be given in front of millions of people.
@YARNLADY “Wouldn’t you think Trump could have found an American wife?”
That would put up with him? No.
BTW: Melania Trump isn’t Russian. She’s from Slovenia.
This wikipedia article discusses the close relationship between the countries.
Yeah, they have open diplomatic relations and embassies in each country. So does the United States and Russia. They have economic trade between them. So does the US and Russia. The relations between Slovenia and Russia are no stronger than those between the United States and Russia.
For that matter, the US and Russia probably have stronger ties, since the two countries do conduct joint military exercises, co-operate the International Space Station, and US astronauts hitch rides to and from space with the Russians.
Furthermore, Slovenia was part of the former Yugoslavia, which, unlike most of the rest of eastern Europe, spent most of its existence resisting Soviet/Russian influence.
I think the speech similarities are, indeed, inadvertent coincidence.
Any other explanation is just too weird.
I happen to know for a fact that Trump farms out his speech writing to an outfit in India.
I heard on the radio (NPR) something about an editing program that even checks for plagiarism. I think that might be a wise investment for the “Trump Team.”
Perhaps ProWritingAid.
turnitin.com is the plagiarism program we use at the college. Apparently, the speech was run through it and it was determined that there was evidence of plagiarism.
@janbb It was run through the program before the speech was given?
More intellectual property rights being ignored by the Trump campaign: apparently they didn’t have Queen’s consent to play “We Are the Champions” at the convention, but they used it anyway… and this isn’t the first time they’ve done this sort of thing.
Of course, since Trump’s business has a history of not paying the contractors it hires for projects, why would the Trump campaign seek rights to music? His pattern of behavior, for all its going against the typical campaign, is rather self-consistent.
Yeah, @Soubresaut kinda hypocritical that his stolen theme song is written and performed by a gay immigrant against the wishes of the remaining band members but fuck them, Imminent domain TRUMPS all.
A friend of mine just wrote a status on Facebook that said this:
Some people seem angry that Melania Trump exposed how Michelle Obama plagiarized Denzel Washington’s movie lines. (John Q movie, February 15, 2002)
“When you say you’re going to do something, you do it. Because your word is your bond, son. It’s all you have.”
The word bond was what really got to me regarding Milania’s plagiarism, and then I see this. I must have seen that movie, because I can hear Denzel saying it in my head as I read it.
Hackneyed.
Appealing to the lowest common denominator.
Political rhetoric.
If Bill uses it, again, there’s a conspiracy.
Another friend wrote this: “The phrase your word is your bond has roots in black America, with a rich hip-hop history. The internet consensus seems to be that Trump’s use of the slogan is an obvious “tell”—a clueless bit of parroting from a Slovenian immigrant who would never organically find her way to those words.” It’s where the colloquial ism “word.” comes from.”
G.O.P. ... Guilty of Plagiarism.
Um, did I miss the appointment of a House Select Committee to Investigate Plagiarism?
Methinks this was all planned. There is no such thing as bad publicity.
Trump is a master of keeping his name in the spotlight; much of his being front and center of all the Republican candidates was that every gaffe, every outrageous statement, pushed all the other candidates off the front page and off the nightly news.
So, the whole focus of attention for a day and a half of the convention is Melania’s plagiarism. Little discussion of the other speakers, no focus on the #NeverTrump movement, no one talking about the platform.
And today Trump tweeted “Good 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!”
@zenvelo Call me crazy, but I can’t imagine him asking Milania to take a hit like that.
@JLeslie You’re crazy. It isn’t a hit if you know about it ahead of time.
We may well end up with the master scam artist of all time as our next President – and I don’t mean Hillary.
I agree with @zenvelo. Now a speech writer has come forward and took full responsibility and even offered to resign. Trump did not accept the resignation and said that everyone makes mistakes. Melania doesn’t look bad now and neither does the speech writer for offering her resignation, and Trump is the good guy for not firing her for a simple mistake.
This is all very fishy.
I’m finding it suspicious also.
Especially after Trumps chief person blamed Hillary for the last 2 days.
@Soubresaut
They don’t specifically need the artist’s consent to play a song over the public address. If that were the case than any bar with a soundsystem would be guilty of numerous intellectual property violations each and every night.
There are performance rights organizations, such as ASCAP and BMI, that cover such usages. It is the job of the venue (not the individual or the group renting the venue) to hold licenses from these organizations. The license is a periodic fee paid to these organizations. That fee covers any and all events held in that venue for that period. I can assure you that the hosting venue, Quicken Arena, being a major venue where sporting events (such as NBA games) are regularly held, is up-to-date with any and all relevant licensing.
Queen can complain, they can publicly voice their disapproval all they want, but you can bet the house that if there were any legit IP violation the lawsuit would already be on the desk of the Trump campaign’s lawyers.
@Darth_Algar—Thanks. I knew public licensing was a thing, but I think I assumed it worked a certain way that it actually does not!... That’s what I get for assuming! So my above comment on that is pretty much void… and now I know!
@Darth_Algar – while the Trumpies may have the legal right to play the Queen song, from a PR point of view, it cannot be a good thing from Trump when the musical group disavows any support for the candidate and complains about the song’s use.
Not that the Trumpies care – but some people listen and notice….
@elbanditoroso
Sure, but politicians using the music of artists who’s view are completely opposite to theirs is nothing new. Although it’s more amusing when the politician unintentionally uses politically charged music from these artists. Reagan’s use of Bruce Springsteen and John McCain’s use of John Mellencamp’s ‘Pink Houses’ are two glorious examples.
Incredible. I envision Michelle rolling on the floor laughing her ass off as she watched Melania give that speech. The conniption probably went on so long that Barry was wondering if her should throw water on her or something. Michelle probably feels sorry for her now, being married to such a dumbass. And I’m sure she’s thanking her lucky stars.
^^I can see it too.
A little side note: conniption means tantrum, not laughing hysterically.
Hilarious vid, @rojo!
Often, conniptions. Informal. a fit of hysterical excitement or anger. Expand. Also called conniption fit.
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