The GOP Is Fallling Apart Over Melania Trump Plagiarism Allegations

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | July 19, 2016 |

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | July 19, 2016 |

The world may be going to hell, but between Kim Kardashian and Taylor Swift and the GOP Convention, I am having a lot of fun this week (it helps that there hasn’t been a violent episode to make national news in America for, like, two days! *knocks on wood*). I am sure that many of you are outraged by what’s going on in Cleveland this week, but I can’t help but to see the comedy.

What’s happening right now is hilarious.

After a carefully orchestrated night of red-meat fear-mongering, Hillary bashing, and promises to take America back from the poors, the gays, the blacks, and the immigrants, all of the night’s Trumpian efforts were completely overshadowed by the fact that his wife repeated in her speech two paragraphs first uttered by the enemy, eight years ago.

The initial reaction on Twitter was amusing. The Trump campaign’s efforts to spin it has been sublime.

This is my favorite headline from today:

That’s your defense? That she only stole parts of the speech? That’s basically the “just the tip” of plagiarism defense.

Trump’s campaign manager also came out this morning and initially offered this response:

“There’s no cribbing of Michelle Obama’s speech. These were common words and values that she cares about — her family, things like that. I mean, she was speaking in front of 35 million people last night. She knew that. To think that she would be cribbing Michelle Obama’s words is crazy.”

One of our illustrious commenters, Vonnegutslut, offered the best response to that:

That weird ass justification of “she was speaking in front of 35M people—she’d be crazy to crib words” is just bonkers.

Riiiiiiiiigggghhhhhtttt…

Manafort has since come out to accuse Hillary Clinton of trying to destroy Melania Trump.

It’s just another example, as far as we’re concerned, that when Hillary Clinton is threatened by a female, the first thing she does is try to destroy the person.

OK, uh, what does Hillary have to do with Melania Trump plagiarizing Michelle Obama’s speech? As of this publishing, the Clinton campaign hasn’t even addressed it. She doesn’t need to. This is a flame that does not need any stoking. To blame Clinton for the reaction is like blaming Clinton for Twitter.

The interior designer who first brought the similarities to the attention of social media is clearly a Clinton plant.

@GOPBlackChick I like the way Paul Manafort is using the Jedi mind trick. You didn't hear what you thought you heard. Pure entertainment!

— Ken Gibson (@gumby7779311) July 19, 2016

Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s former scumbag campaign manager Corey Lewandowski — who assaulted a reporter from a sympathetic outlet — has the audacity to ask Paul Manafort to resign for letting the speech go through.

WATCH: @CLewandowski_ on if Paul Manafort saw @MELANIATRUMP's speech ahead of time: "I think he would resign" pic.twitter.com/KrXDb94eAH

— POLITICO (@politico) July 19, 2016

Corey Lewandowski says whomever wrote Melania Trump's speech should be fired.

Well… you had a nice run, Michelle Obama.

— Jeremy Levy (@jewgravy) July 19, 2016

He’s not the only one. Trump buddy and frequent sympathizer Joe Scarborough has also insisted that Manafort be fired.

This is an internal problem they’ve got to fix. And I’ve got to say, Paul Manafort is not helping things at all by coming up with statements last night that didn’t make sense and then making them inoperative this morning, four hours later … Manafort has just put a target on his back … Because now the way you fix it is by firing Paul Manafort.

Meanwhile, the Clinton camp is out there retweeting all like:

Finally, in case you need it, here’s a quick rundown of Day One of the RNC:

Here is a list of some of the things that happened at the first day of the Republican convention: pic.twitter.com/97H81oP8i6

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) July 19, 2016