Plagiargate – Whodunit? [View all]

Soon after Melania Trump walked off the stage at the Republican National Convention after giving an extremely well received speech in which she praised her husband Donald Trump, the wheels started to come off. Parts of her speech sounded very familiar to some people and if Michelle Obama was watching Melania on TV, she probably fell out of her chair. Word soon spread on the internet and soon thereafter to the news media that sections Melania’s speech appeared to have be taken almost word for word out of Michelle’s speech at the 2008 Democratic convention. The speech which Republicans were calling “the highlight of the evening” quickly became a real embarrassment. Not only did word “plagiarism” rear its ugly head, but stealing from Michelle Obama of all people? OMG! Someone would have to pay!

So who was responsible for the plagiarism? (And despite protests from the Trump camp to the contrary, it was plagiarism.) Even though Melina told several people early on that she wrote the speech herself, the witch hunt for the real culprit was on with vengeance. Former Trump campaign manager, Cory Lewandowski, and Republican National Committee Chair, Reince Priebus, publicly called for the speechwriter involved to be fired as did several other prominent Republicans.

This morning as the national media waited to find out whose head would roll, something unusual happened – absolutely nothing. No one got fired by the Trump campaign. Trump’s campaign manager, Paul Manafort, insisted that Melina’s words were her owned, not cribbed from anyone. He then mumbled something about it being all Hillary Clinton’s fault, and then went on to say that the Trump campaign would have nothing further to say about the matter.

Is this, as some suspect, just Trump and his campaign doubling down and pretending that nothing unusual has happened; “nothing to see here folks, move along”. Maybe, but I don’t think so.

Plagiargate – Whodunit?