It’s now clear that Melania Trump’s speech at the RNC last night was partially plagiarized from Michelle Obama’s speech to the DNC. At first I was inclined to doubt: it’s really hard to say two pieces of mushy platitudes are different, let alone alike, but when put side by side it’s clear that there was literal copying and pasting going on.
NPR carried the original text of Obama’s speech. The relevant section is here, and areas of common phrasing have been bolded:
And Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values: that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and 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.
And Barack and I set out to build lives guided by these values, and pass them on to 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 for them.
Below is the section of Trump’s speech, as transcribed by Quartz:
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. That is a lesson that I continue to pass along to our son. And we need to pass those lessons on to the many generations to follow. Because we want our children in this nation to know that their only limit to your achievements is the strength of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.
But here’s the thing…I actually have a lot of sympathy for Melania. She’s a non-native English speaker, and she has never trained to be a speechifier — I teach biology students who are told from day one of their arrival at this university that the culminating experience before graduating will be giving a 45 minute talk to the faculty and their peers. They know for four years that this is coming. We coach them along with classroom exercises. I practically hold their hands in the weeks before they have to give it. And still, this one event is the source of tremendous anxiety for many of them.
Now imagine that your career is as a model, and you’re told that you’re going to have to make a speech that will be broadcast around the world, and that will be scrutinized intensely in order to find fault with your husband. The pressure must have been intense, and thus my sympathy for her.
That does not excuse plagiarism, however. But if we’re going to blame anyone, that has to be fastened directly on the Trump campaign team. She had speechwriters composing her talk — my students don’t get that. Her speech should have had multiple levels of inspection. Obama’s speech was very well received, so I can understand using it as a starting framework — but everyone on the speechwriting team should have known that was one of the sources, and been particularly alert to making sure that this kind of sloppy plagiarizing didn’t happen. They were apparently working on this important speech to be given by an amateur for six weeks, and somebody should have been going through it line by line to make sure it was in line with the goals of the campaign, that there were no outrageous errors, and that it just plain sounded good. There must be many people who have heard her practice it dozens of times. A speech like that had to have been vetted out the wazoo, unless it wasn’t, which would also be a problem.
Her delivery was fine, but the content was stolen, and for that we have to blame the Trump staff who gave it to her and coached her on it. And that tells me that there is a gang of lazy incompetents working behind the scenes of the chief lazy incompetent, Donald Trump.
You missed the fun part: she rickrolled the RNC:
“I can assure you, he is the ‘guy’. He will never, ever, give up. And, most importantly, he will never, ever, let you down.”
I think it’s clear the speechwriters were long past the point of giving a hoot.
I blame Melania and Michelle for coming up with that American Dream crap again. It is a fucking lie. There are many, many limits to the height of ones achievements. Most of them one has no influence on whatsoever.
Yeah, prospective first lady speeches tend to be platitudinous mush. Michelle did fine with hers, Melania did fine with the crap she was given. All they really do is put up a woman to be a target.
Which means Bill Clinton is going to be a problem. I hope he doesn’t get up on the DNC stage and start spouting off policy, because I’m not voting for him. He’d better just look gracious and attractive and spend his time praising his wife.
Yes, and wear a fetching dress suite that the pundits can wax eloquent about.
Clearly, Melania Trump is not to blame for lifting material from Michele Obama. According to CNN, where I first read about this flap, there were multiple speechwriters and reviewers involved. She was very reluctant to give a speech at all, but it’s a long standing tradition, so she was dependent on them. She’s probably furious at this point, and well she should be. Yet another example of the incompetence of the Trump organization.
Of course, Ms. Trump’s speech is a side show. What seems more important is the StopTrump delegates who walked out because they couldn’t stop the voice vote on the rules earlier in the day.
rietpluim @ #2
I wouldn’t blame them personally for coming up with the “American Dream crap.” That’s way older than either of them and all of us. I also wouldn’t blame them for spouting it at political conventions. They aren’t called “conventions” just because there’s a meeting. Everything about these gatherings is conventional, including the mushy platitudes about the American Dream.
I do realize that this American Dream crap is what most people want to hear from a potential first lady, or from anybody for that matter. Personally I prefer people not to lie.
I mean, wasn’t Obama’s slogan “Yes, we can”? I would have expected Michelle to say something like “Let’s build a society where the only limit to the height of your achievements really is the reach of your dreams and not the color of your skin, nor the financial situation of your parents”.
Hard at work, even as we speak, GOP trolls are researching every speech Barak, Michelle, Hillary, Joe Biden, or dozens of other prominent Democrats ever made, looking for examples of plagiarism, no matter how small, no matter how long ago. If they find something, and they will even if you have to squint, and once disseminated to the RW Noise Machine and out on Twitter, all will be bleating how much worse the Dems are.
In the German school system students are required to give speeches in every class, starting at a very young age. By the time they reach college, they have gotten used to it.
In the American school system there is one unit on rhetoric in 10th grade English, I think.
Must have been those infernal interns again.
Of course, those speechwriters and advisers are the very best people that could be found.
Come on folks,
is so obviously copied, it is not conceivable that 2 speech writers would come up with this very sentence for practically the same occasion by chance, even if we factor in, that speeches dealing in platitudes could be very similar without plagiarizing. This was deliberate, someone on Trumps team did this as a joke.
@penalfire #9: are you certain? not in my day (way back).
and the speech writers already blame Hillary for Melania plagiarism!!
Trump extremists, Palin fanatic, creationists and even “regular” republicans have the same mentality: They assume other people won’t fact check what they say because they don’t fact check anything themselves.
They assume they can make up everything as they go and nothing bad will happen, or that good things will happen because they want it to. Not even CS Lewis’s fictions are this disconnected from reality.
Man, the West Wing really lionised political speechwriters…
Turns out the Toby and Sam in reality are two students downloading pre-written essays off some internet exam cheat sheet service, a few bots to modify some words, hand it in, cash the paycheck…
Another example of we can do and say anything and it won’t matter to our base? Or deliberate sabotage. I’m still thinking the Donald is playing a long game, for what I don’t know. He’s either going down in history as that crazy orange guy, or as the greatest political prankster of all time.
Everything about the Trump campaign has been half-arsed, so this is no surprise. Except that I never would have expected her to get Rickrolled: that’s pretty special.
Doubting Thomas
Everything he has done or is doing will help his brand in the future. The only successful business he’s ever had was Donald Trump. Win or loose, he’s got years ahead of him of punditry on Fox News, lucrative reality TV programs, and infinite ways to put his name on things. It doesn’t matter if these things fail, as many have, he still makes lots of money.
Even worse, in Michelle Obama’s speech it was “the reach of your dreams,” which is still pap but at least makes sense. “The strength of your dreams”? Also, it was paired with “the height of your achievements,” which nicely brought out the spatial idea; the cribbed version loses this.
He could be “playing the game”. Astounded himself at his success after bloviating stupid opinions he hears from assholes on the street and the stupid shit his student interns write up for him to sputter. When asked to go off script he stutters and pulls up random phrases, with no hesitation to contradict his previous sentences..
Reiterating what I’ve said earlier elsewheres: Drumph is a bloviating asshole, but he is not the asshole to be angry at. The people who voted for him are the morons at large, the angry assholes who hate everything, think everything is crumbling around them, by people they want to oppress.
Drumph is just a figurehead of the wreckage of the citizens our society has produced.
We don’t blame the dumpster fire for being ugly, but the arsonist who started that fire in that dumpster.
@slithey tove #19 – I agree with you, to the extent that Trump loves to stir up the fire as well.
Larry @#8… it won’t take just GOP trolls to search for “both sides” evidence… All the Sunday show hosts and their teams are desperately doing that work for them. Chuck Todd is shitting himself thinking about someone mentioning that ONLY the Republicans do this or do that… This is the thing that makes him bold upright in bed every night.
Watch, Trump’s yes-men will claim that they deliberately to contrast what a “classy First Lady”* Melania will make, as opposed to the evil and graceless** “Moochelle.”
*White
**Non-white
Incompetent speechwriters? Or crafty embedded saboteurs?
(a blue-haired Stephen Colbert laughs all the way home)
In a similar vein…One of Trump’s claims to fame was writing The Art of the Deal. I’m sure most of us suspected that he didn’t write it…he just put his name on it. Well, the ghostwriter, Tony Schwartz, has gone public. He’s not too pleased to find Trump running for president. The way he tells it, it seems Trump barely read the drafts, which isn’t that surprising since Trump is on record as not reading very much. As he says, he makes the right decisions “with very little knowledge other than the knowledge I [already] had, plus the words ‘common sense,’ because I have a lot of common sense and I have a lot of business ability.”
PZ:
I expect a lot of people will be making excuses for her. Here’s the thing though – how many people would have given Michelle Obama a pass, or made excuses? I’m pretty sure you can run one response scenario after another in your head. By excusing Melania Trump, it confirms implicit bias.
Perhaps the speechwriters borrowed the phrasing to make a point by making subtle changes in the wording. Contrast Obama’s:
with Trump’s:
Now, what’s the tiny little distinction?
Well, the problem with not blaming her here is that she claimed to have written the speech herself.
“I read it once over, and that’s all because I wrote it with as little help as possible,” she told TODAY’s Matt Lauer in an exclusive interview on Monday
So, she can’t come out of this squeaky clean either way. Either she plagiarized or she lied about writing her speech herself.
I’m with #27. She says it’s her speech so she has to accept responsibility for it or admit to lying.
…and I’m assuming she lied about writing the speech herself, which is pretty much par for the course in politics.
Well, what is worse? Donald was born Trump, but Melania chose to be Trump.
I know that doesn’t make much sense, but I’ve learned there are lies the moment a Trump opens their mouth.
I’m with PZ on this one, in that I think we all need to sympathize with Melania. I mean it was totally classless of Michelle Obama to give the same speech at the 2008 convention that the future First Lady gave last night, so Michelle owes Melania an apology.
Just a white person’s contribution to society being co-opted by another sub-group.
You may recall that Joe Biden was caught plagiarizing a speech when he was running for president in 1988. He lifted several sentences from a British politician, and was forced to drop out of the race because of the fallout. I don’t imagine that will happen with the Trump campaign though. He’s shown that no amount of ignorance, bigotry, or dishonesty will cause most of his supporters to reconsider – if anything they just double down on him.
I suspect Trump is a first class asshole to her, considering his past sexist statements about women in general and her former wife, so I will feel bad for her when it comes to that.
Considering this speech… I’m not going to treat her like a blubbering moron. As others have said – either she lied about writing the speech herself or she was the one to plagiarize it.
Her husband, her speech, her words.
Her responsibility.
No, no sympathy there.
Full disclosure: My sympathy-level for people caught plagiarising is pretty non-existent to begin with.
kdemello1980
Here’s an internet for you!
slithey tove (twas brillig (stevem)) #19
There are two ways in which I’d disagree.
First:
I have enough anger left to be angry at both the singular asshole and the asshole masses that support him.
Second, and probably more important, what you are saying is that Trump, who you imply might just be riding a wave, not believing the things he says necessarily, and, to improve your analogy, happens upon a dumpster fire and then pours gas upon it, then tells the people that he’s the only one who can put out the fire while continuing to pour more gas upon it.
That is to say, yes, I have anger for ignorant, fearful, reactionary, xenophobic, authoritarian masses of people. To say, however, that I should have less anger for someone who is not necessarily embroiled and subject to these fears and ignorance, who may know that this fear and ignorance is not based in reality, and who instead utilize and inflame these fears and ignorance for their personal gain and power, seems to be to be exactly backwards if I am to mete out my anger more to one than the other.
Melania Trump is 46 years old, and has been married to this windbag for well over a decade (16 years?). She was a professional model—she’s used to being in front of a crowd (though perhaps not speaking in front of a crowd, nor one of this magnitude). And while English is not her first language, she speaks it well (albeit with an accent). I have seen no evidence aside from her choice of spouse that she is stupid.
She claims she wrote this speech. The most charitable interpretation I could spin on it is that she wrote a speech, and gave it to Trump people to reread/rewrite/tweak/vet/etc, and one of them added the plagiarized bits.
But I was intrigued by a tweet thread from @FeministaJones.
Start here: https://twitter.com/FeministaJones/status/755352882313035776
and read the thread. Precis: They (Melania and/or Trump’s team) nicked the words of a woman who clearly loves her husband and really believes the words she was saying back in 2008, perhaps because they couldn’t come up with any genuine relationship or feelings between Melania and Donald.
The money quote:
As Trump said, he could stand in the middle of fifth avenue and shoot someone and not lose any voters. Plagiarism? None of his supporters care. It may be a mistake, but I t means we’re talking about Trump rather than anything else, so it’s a win in his book.
Republicans rush to defend Melania Trump speech from plagiarism accusations, includes Newt Gingrich at his best. And yes, Clinton (Hillary) gets blamed, too.
I’m wondering why she’s still running for president. Very clearly, with her superpowers she could just get stuff done.
Cross posted from the Moments of Political Madness thread.
Journalist Matt Pearce (National reporter for the Los Angeles Times) summarized the issue of Melania’s speech:
Response from Katrina Pierson, Trump’s spokeswoman:
Not sure they need more trouble than they already have, but it looks like norovirus has made an appearance at the Republican National Convention.
Not sure they need more trouble than they already have, but it looks like norovirus has made an appearance at the Republican National Convention.
Los Angeles Times link
Gotta love how certain commenters here feel the need to derail the discussion of the Trump campaign’s blatant plagiarism by turning it into a Berniebro-tinged attack on “platitudinous mush.” How much of the American Dream(TM) is a lie is beside the point, for some people hard work really is rewarded by social success. Don’t you think Obama, no matter how favorable his familial situation, had to put it a few gallons of sweat to become goddamn POTUS?
You’re doing the Regressive Right’s job of belittling POC achievement. Good job, comment section.
Shouldn’t the focus be on the utter hypocrisy of the washep-up nudie model-turned-courtesan of an inheritance-fueled con man cribbing a speech extoling the virtues of integrity, hard work and principles?
I also heard there’s a contagious infection on top of people shitting and puking uncontrollably.
I have no sympathy for Melania Trump.
Trump was already a notorious douche when she became his 2nd (3rd?) wife. Either she genuinely fell for someone that odious, or she’s mercenary enough to marry and raise a child with him just for his wealth. Neither possibility speaks well of her. And she certainly didn’t have to claim in that interview that she (mostly) wrote her speech; everyone understands that spouses in particular rely on speechwriters.
Before the plagiarism thing hit, pundits were praising it as a success, and I suppose that’s true, but only because I think the bar is set much lower for spouses. As frog mentions @36, the speech is surprisingly lacking any attempt to humanize Trump. By comparison, Ann Romney did a reasonably good job in 2012 of showing a different side to Mitt “I like to fire people” Romney. I mean, it didn’t change my opinion of him, but it might have for some people.
applehead #41
Bless your heart.
This is not the first time applehead has read to me as a blatantly obvious troll. I’m I off on this?
*sigh*
Am* I…
Trump University’s textbooks were also just plagiarized copy-paste from some other real estate manual. It’s a pattern.
His ‘business’ is just a lot of stage flats and paper mache props that only have to last until he can take the money and run.
applehead
She’s a grown woman. There’s no need to slut-shame her. I’m pretty sure there’s a lot you can criticize about her without resorting to that.
… Not that adolescent girls or, for that matter, anyone, deserves to be slut-shamed. That was bad phrasing on my part, sorry.
it makes no significant difference at all where she got the speech none. It is all part of the sales presentation and like a really good sales presentation any real facts or information are only ever just implied the meat is emotional language designed to feed the positive expectations of the target for the pitch subject, be it a new suit, a vacation time share or a political savior.
That is what he is selling himself as The Political Savior.
Go look at all his pitches they are all the same his stakes(?) his university a sales pitches disguised as seminars.
Like robro said above it is all just a pitch there is no solution. We do ourselves wrong by playing into a tit for tat with that approach. and just like Trump university or trump stakes what will happen when we take it home and open it up to find it is empty of any superlatives and is just Pewter and cut glass and not diamonds and platinum.
uncle frogy
I’m starting to wonder if this video is satire or whistle-blowing
Also note the overt sexism here. It is always the wife telling how loving and caring the presidential candidate is. He can’t say it, because it would make him look like a wuss. But people accept it when she says it. I wonder what Bill has to say about Hillary.
@frog #36
Ouch. That must hurt.
@applehead #41
You’re reading things that nobody wrote. I am not belittling the hard work and achievements of anybody. However, if you are born black, disabled, or poor, chances are that you have to work even harder and still not achieve a thing. When you’re shot by a racist cop, to use a recent example. The success story of Obama doesn’t change that fact, and they should know that.
rietplum@52:
Google shall provide! Quite a many good things, apparently:
http://www.bustle.com/articles/82803-7-bill-clinton-quotes-about-hillary-that-will-melt-even-the-most-conservative-heart
http://www.bustle.com/articles/89971-8-bill-clinton-quotes-on-hillary-clinton-and-how-she-inspired-him-during-hard-times
Some of those are a bit generic, but others have specificity. When they talk about each other, I get a strong impression of two very difficult people who don’t always get along, but will destroy anyone who tries to hurt the other.
Applehead, I didn’t see anyone mention Bernie and I have to point out that he definitely didn’t invent the idea that the American Dream is bullshit.
Unsure what you’re talking about, tbh.
Applehead, legitimately what is your problem? Do you do anything ever aside from do hit and run posts that attack people in remarkably illiberal ways (ie msigendering me or slut shaming melania) and rant about bernie bros?
She took ownership by claiming she wrote it herself (“with as little help as possible”), therefore to not blame her for its content is to tacitly call her a liar.
(Not really doing her a favour)
I’m inclined to believe as well that her speech writers stole this for her, and she is correct that she wrote it “with as little help as possible” – there was no help at all given to her with this.
The discussion on the “American Dream” reminded me of: “Not Your American Dream”
Turns out, no it is 100% her fault. She heavily modified the speech she was given and didn’t communicate with the original speech writers:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/20/us/politics/melania-trump-convention-speech.html
applehead wrote:
*sigh* Really? You went with misogyny as your criticism of Melania? And you did this immediately after chastising people for “doing the Regressive Right’s job”? You might want to look in a mirror there, friend.
I don’t care about the plagiarism, I don’t care about the state of her marriage. The relevant point is that she stood up in front of a national audience and endorsed America’s fascist, and that puts her on a par with the likes of Chris Christie, Newt Gingerich, and Scott Baio.
Speaking of whom, congrats on clearing the shark, applehead.
Paul Manafort wanted to distract by talking about how the speech addressed immigration and how it’s done right, as in her case (but see here and here). If Melania Trump had wanted to come to the US after the Immigration Act of 1924, she would have had little chance. At that time, southeastern Europeans were racially and ethnically stereotyped in just the way Mexicans/Latinos are today (many of the stereotypes themselves were the same). And she’s now contributing to the perpetuation of this culture and these policies.
It’s particularly infuriating that they used Queen’s “We Are The Champions” as part of Melania’s introduction. And of course, without the band’s permission.
My TV showed bits of Melania’s speech after similar bits of Michelle Obama’s speech. I could forgive Melania for her delivery, by herself, but compared to Michelle she was flat and monotone and waxy. Ms Obama sounded spontaneous and passionate and sincere.
If Melania Trump did write the speech herself, that would explain a lot, including the rickroll, though you’d think that after 16 years in the US she’d be aware of the implications of a rickroll. And, living with Trump, she may simply not realize that plagiarism is a problem. Trump lies, cheats, steals, and claims credit for others’ work so why would she think it’s wrong to do the same herself?
I think it’s hilarious, though, that she chose Obama’s speech to plagiarize, mostly because of all the racists who are busy talking about what a horrible first lady Ms. Obama is and how much better Melania would be. Well, it appears that Ms. Trump does not agree and thinks that Ms. Obama is worth copying.
Maroon@60:
While I do care about the plagiarism–it’s a major “sin” in academia and research in general–I think you are entirely correct about the major issue here. She’s literally supporting fascism. That’s a problem beyond whatever else may have been wrong in her speech.
dianne:
She’s also supporting her husband. Perhaps that’s even her primary motivation.
(Some would call that admirable)
Someone on the “Moments of Political Madness” thread pointed out that Michelle Obama’s speech writer in 2008 had previously written speeches for Clinton. So if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I believe that Melina Trump has just implicitly stated that Clinton would be an excellent president. Or that Rick Astley would be. One of the two.
A thought that just occurred to me: Is anyone else concerned about Melina Trump’s safety after this event? She not only made a major blunder but she took attention away from Donald. He doesn’t seem the sort to say, “Eh, no big deal” and go on with life after that occurs and I’m a bit worried that Ms. Trump may be in danger of physical or emotional abuse.
Judging from Donald’s character, she probably already has been for 16 years.
Golly, I hope nobody tells the RNC that Melania means “Black girl”
I wouldn’t be too quick to let her off the hook. There are reports that she claimed she wrote it herself with ‘as little help as possible’:
https://twitter.com/HallieJackson/status/755254554346807296
Would it have really hurt Drumph’s status if Melania admitted she copied the speech, by saying,
“Michelle said pretty much what I wanted to say, so I used a few of her phrases, out of flattery. (Thanks, Michelle) Glad you guys noticed the source.”
I think it would made her sound a little more, aware of the world, and not just a Trophy Wife (TM) who Dunwad likes to decorate himself with, being smothered under that piece of orange excrement.
I guess I can’t put myself in the mindset of the Trumpsters, who feel appalled that someone from the “other
skinparty” would have anything worth repeating.I just don’t see any denigration in giving credit where due. It might even increase it in some who remain undecided.