Joe.My.God. LGBT News
But as it turns out, it was Melania who supplied the words. The New York Times reports:
A longtime employee of the Trump Organization took responsibility for lifting two passages, from a 2008 speech by Michelle Obama, for Melania Trump’s address on Monday at the Republican National Convention, saying that it was an innocent mistake.
The employee, Meredith McIver, who has worked on some of Mr. Trump’s books, appears to be one of the few people to apologize 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. Ms. McIver was brought in after Ms. Trump discarded the majority 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 news media. And it breathed new life into a story now in its third day.
ABC News reports:
The staffer, who identified herself in a statement as Meredith McIver, said she submitted her resignation Tuesday but the Trump family rejected it.
“A person she [Melania] has always liked is Michelle Obama. Over the phone, she 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,” McIver said in the statement released this afternoon and written under Trump Organization letterhead. “This was my mistake and I feel terrible for the chaos I have caused Melania and the Trumps, as well as Mrs. Obama. No harm was meant.”
The speechwriter admitted she never crosschecked the address for duplicated lines from the first lady’s speeches.
Don’t hold your breath for apologies from Chris Christie, Paul Manafort, or any of the others that blamed the scandal on Hillary Clinton.