Melania Trump’s speechwriter, who has been a longtime employee of the Trump Organization, has taken the blame for taking passages from a Michelle Obama speech from 2008.
The New York Times reports that Meredith McIver, who has also helped write some of Donald Trump’s books, posted a statement on the Trump campaign’s website explaining her involvement in Melania’s speech.
“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,” she wrote.
She explained that Michelle Obama is one of the people Melania Trump drew inspiration from.
“Over the phone,” Ms. 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.”
Ms McIver has since offered to resign from the Trump Organization, but the Trump family has declined to accept it.
She said that Donald Trump accepted that ‘people make mistakes’ and Ms McIver is disappointed that the plagiarism distracted from Melania’s ‘beautiful message’.
Donald Trump has praised the publicity the speech has gotten, and took to Twitter to spread the message.
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