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Melania Trump's speechwriter takes blame for remarks lifted from Michelle Obama
By Maggie Haberman
Cleveland: A long-time employee of the Trump Organisation has taken responsibility for lifting two passages from a speech by first lady Michelle Obama for Melania Trump's address at the Republican National Convention on Monday, saying that it was an innocent mistake.
Nonetheless, her explanation for how Mrs Obama's words got into the speech appeared to confirm Mrs Trump's plagiarism of the first lady. Two passages in Mrs Trump's speech closely mirror those in Mrs Obama's address at the Democratic National Convention in 2008.
The employee, Meredith McIver, who has worked on some of Mr Trump's books, is the first person to apologise publicly for an error at any point during the Trump campaign.
The New York Times on Tuesday night identified Ms McIver as playing a role in the speech, although the extent of her involvement was unclear, and the Trump campaign declined to answer questions.
Melania Trump waves after she made her now-infamous speech.Credit: AP
Ms McIver was brought in after Mrs Trump discarded most of a draft written by two professional speechwriters.
Ms McIver identified herself in an unusual statement posted on the Trump campaign's website, hours after the chief strategist, Paul Manafort, said the issue was manufactured by the media. And it breathed new life into story now in its third day.
"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," Ms McIver wrote.
"A person she has always liked is Michelle Obama," she added. "Over the phone [Mrs Trump] 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."
She said that she had "offered my resignation to Mr Trump and the Trump family but they rejected it", and that "Mr Trump told me that people make innocent mistakes and we learn and grow from these experiences".
She continued: "I asked to put out the 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.
"I apologise for the confusion and hysteria my mistake has caused. Today, more than ever, I am honoured to work for such a great family."
The Trump campaign had pushed back on claims that Mr Manafort and his team were behind the listed passages, which marred Mrs Trump's first major foray into politics and served as a significant embarrassment.
An hour before the statement was released, showing no hint of giving in to critics or conceding a mistake, Mr Trump accused the media of holding a microscope to his wife and employed one of his favourite phrases about publicity.
"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!" Mr Trump wrote in one tweet.
In a quick follow-up, he added, "The media is spending more time doing a forensic analysis of Melania's speech than the FBI spent on Hillary's emails."
The investigation into Mrs Clinton's use of a private email server while she was the secretary of state lasted for nearly a year.
Mr Trump had stayed silent throughout Tuesday after the speech on Monday night. On Wednesday, Mr Manafort said in televised interviews that it was time to move on.
New York Times