Melania Trump's 'Stolen' Speech Is a Sign of Two Worse Things to Come
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The biggest story to come out of the opening night of the 2016 Republican National Convention are the plagiarism allegations against potential fist lady, Melania Trump.
There are some key references to family values, respect, and raising children in Melania Trump's speech that are almost exactly the same as Obama's 2008 speech.
Despite the striking similarities, Donald Trump's campaign manager Paul Manafort, said that Melania Trump didn't copy her speech.
"To think that she would do something like that knowing how scrutinized her speech was going to be last night is just really absurd," said Manafort, according to CNN.
Beyond the campaign's outright denials, there are some people who simply think Melania Trump's plagiarism isn't that big of a deal. Donald Trump has survived bigger scandals — from the fraud charges against Trump University to his hateful comments about Muslims and Mexicans — so what makes this one any different?
But, there are those who believe regardless of whether voters care about Melania's apparent rip-off, it's still a really big deal. Josh Barro, a senior editor at Business Insider, tweeted his argument about why people should care about the speech. He said that the obvious plagiarism is a sign of what a Trump presidency will be like.
For starters, the inability of the Trump campaign's staff to catch or stop the plagiarism could predict future failures.
The question that arises from Barro's argument is this: if Trump can't even construct a team to run a transparent, scandal free campaign, how is he supposed to run the most powerful country in the world? Is this best the man that has promised to "hire the best people" can do?
But, this isn't the first time that a presidential campaign has faced plagiarism allegations during a campaign.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton accused President Barack Obama, her opponent for the Democratic nomination at the time, of plagiarizing then Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick during the 2008 race. Obama said that he should have given Patrick, a personal friend, credit for part of his speech, but that charges of plagiarism were absurd.
“Let’s see. I’ve written two books. I wrote most of my speeches," said Obama to The New York Times. "I would add that I noticed Senator Clinton, on occasion, has used words of mine as well.”
