Melania Trump's speech closely resembled Michelle Obama's in 2008
CLEVELAND (AP) - Melania Trump's star turn at the Republican National Convention Monday night captivated a GOP crowd that had rarely heard from her. But her speech also drew attention after the discovery that two passages matched nearly word-for-word the speech that first lady Michelle Obama delivered in 2008 at the Democratic National Convention.
The passages in question focused on lessons that Trump's wife says she learned from her parents and the relevance of their lessons in her experience as a mother.
"There's no cribbing of Michelle Obama's speech," Paul Manafort, Trump's campaign manager, said Tuesday morning in a CNN interview. "Certainly, there's no feeling on her part that she did it," he said. "What she did was use words that are common words."
Manafort said Mrs. Trump was aware of "how her speech was going to be scrutinized" and said any notion that she picked up portions of Mrs. Obama's convention talk was "just absurd."
The passages in question came near the beginning of Mrs. Trump's roughly 10-minute speech. Her address was otherwise distinct from the address that Mrs. Obama gave when then-Sen. Barack Obama was being nominated for president.
In Mrs. Trump's speech in Cleveland, she said: "From a young age, my parents impressed on me the values that you work hard for what you want in life, that your word is your bond and you do what you say and keep your promise, that you treat people with respect. They taught and showed me values and morals in their daily life."
In Mrs. Obama's 2008 speech in Denver, she said: "And Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values: like, you work hard for what you want in life, that your word is your bond, that you do what you say you're going to do, that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don't know them and even if you don't agree with them."
Another passage with notable similarities that follows two sentences later in Mrs. Trump's speech addresses her attempts to instill those values in her son.
"We need to pass those lessons on to the many generations to follow," Mrs. Trump said. "Because we want our children in this nation to know that the only limit to your achievements is the strength of your dreams and your willingness to work for them."
In the first lady's 2008 speech, she said, "Barack and I set out to build lives guided by these values and to pass them onto the next generation, because we want our children -- and all children in this nation -- to know that the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work hard for them."
Trump's campaign initially responded that Mrs. Trump's "immigrant experience and love for America shone through in her speech." The statement didn't mention Mrs. Obama. "In writing her beautiful speech, Melania's team of writers took notes on her life's inspirations, and in some instances included fragments that reflected her own thinking," Trump spokesman Jason Miller said.
White House officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment late Monday.
In an interview with NBC News taped ahead of her convention appearance and posted online early Tuesday, Mrs. Trump said of her speech, "I wrote it." She added that she had "a little help."