By Dustin Rowles | Politics | July 19, 2016 |
By Dustin Rowles | Politics | July 19, 2016 |
There were plenty of jokes about Melania Trump’s speech during primetime of the Republican National Convention last night —
"I'm fortunate for my heritage & even more fortunate that I'm attractive enough for my husband to ignore it." - Melania Trump #RNCinCLE
— hellresidentNY (@hellresidentNY) July 19, 2016
"Donald is intensely loyal," said his third wife.
— Neil Irwin (@Neil_Irwin) July 19, 2016
— and a lot of folks mused that Melania was giving the speech against her will —
Melania's mouth: "He is so loyal." Melania's eyelids (in Morse code): "KIDNAPPED. SEND HELP. GOV CHRISTIE ALREADY DEAD."
— Presidente de China (@RSGAT) July 19, 2016
Melania sounds like she's reading a script for her parents after she's been kidnapped. #RNCinCLE
— Jess (@rekaBacisseJ) July 19, 2016
— which I think is kind of messed up. I mean, a woman has every right to voluntarily marry a bloviating, narcissistic douchebag 24 years her senior and 24 times less attractive. Not every horrible decision is motivated by coercion.
All in all, however, the speech itself wasn’t bad. It was kind of boring, which is considerably better than Rudy Guilianni’s terrifying, pants-wetting speech that may or may not have been directed by Leni Riefenstahl.
when ma's food isn't piping hot pic.twitter.com/bl8F3alvla
— sean. (@SeanMcElwee) July 19, 2016
#RNCinCLE pic.twitter.com/MqsTxiAhsb
— Chris Jackson (@ChrisCJackson) July 19, 2016
Whatever good will — or lack of ill will — created by Melania Trump’s speech, however, was quickly overshadowed by the fact that she straight-up stole parts of it from Michelle Obama’s 2008 speech at the Democratic National Convention.
It is impossible to deny. Impossible.
So that's pretty blatant, right? pic.twitter.com/EPnHME7afV
— Mike Hearn (@mikehearn) July 19, 2016
That is crazy. Who is so arrogant that they think they can lift parts of a speech from the First Lady and think no one will notice? Or that people will notice and won’t care?
The Trumps, that’s who.
Maybe Trump is a secret Hillary plant trying to tank the election for her? What other explanation can there be for a guy who almost seems to be tanking his candidacy?
At any rate, after accusations came out, Trump’s team quickly released a statement that attempted to shift the blame to Melania Trump’s speechwriters:
Melania’s team of writers took notes on her life’s inspirations, and in some instances included fragments that reflected her own thinking.
Nevermind the “team of writers,” what do they mean that “in some instances” they included fragments that reflected “her own thinking”? Do they mean that, in some instances, they allowed her own own thoughts to be reflected in the speech?
How gracious!
Of course, that “team of writers” working on Melania’s speech contradicts what Melania said herself earlier in the day on the Today show: “I read once over it, that’s all, because I wrote it … with (as) little help as possible.”
What a shitshow. A hilarious, trainwreck of a shitshow.
In terms of what could have happened on day 1 of this convention, "White nationalist's wife steals speech from black woman" is like a 4.5
— Brian Byrd (@BrianByrdman) July 19, 2016
Michelle & Melania w/the same speech is like when michael fassbender & Ashton kutcher both played Steve jobs but we pretend it was only mike
— Kirsten (@KirstenS) July 19, 2016
It gets better. https://t.co/4okGK1mqZq
— Danielle Nussbaum (@daniellenuss) July 19, 2016
Double standard that we're piling on Melania. Giuliani stole his speech from the Ultimate Warrior and nobody peeped.
— Coked Up Jesus (@aRobertsg) July 19, 2016
Trump campaign's Melaniaghazigate strategy is to ignore it and act like we're all stupid. Let's see how this works. pic.twitter.com/8dL4zwA8hn
— A Jason Tabrys (@jtabrys) July 19, 2016
Melania Trump plagiarized Michele Obama’s speech from ‘08. That explains why it was the only coherent speech given last night. #RNCinCle
— Steven Davis (@stevendavis) July 19, 2016
Melania Trump timeline.
— The Daily Edge (@TheDailyEdge) July 19, 2016
2005: marries Donald Trump
2006: becomes US citizen
2008: learns American values from Michelle Obama#RNCinCLE
Calm down, everyone. Melania Trump's tweet wasn't plagiarism! It was meant to be a sheriff's star! #RNCinCLE
— OhNoSheTwitnt (@OhNoSheTwitnt) July 19, 2016