The Trump campaign is dismissing criticism that Melania Trump last night directly lifted two passages, nearly word-for-word, from a speech Michelle Obama delivered eight years ago at the Democratic National Convention.
Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort says the issue was "totally blown out of proportion." He says of the speech, "There were a few words on it, but they're not words that were unique words."
Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus says he would "probably" fire his speechwriters if they lifted passages from someone else's remarks.
However, Priebus says he doesn't "have a view yet" on whether Melania Trump's convention speech included plagiarized sentences from a 2008 Michelle Obama address. Priebus praised Mrs. Trump for her "inspirational" remarks, particularly her story of immigrating from Slovenia.
Newt Gingrich is calling the uproar "baloney." The former House speaker dismissed the issue and pointed out that Vice President Joe Biden abandoned his presidential bid in 1988 for taking parts of British leader Neil Kinnock's speech and President Barack Obama took heat for copying some of former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick's speech.
The White House is staying out of the debate over similarities between Melania Trump's GOP convention speech and Michelle Obama's speech to the 2008 Democratic convention.
Spokesman Josh Earnest says Obama received an enthusiastic reception and strong reviews back then because of the speech, her life story and the values of integrity and hard work that she and the president try to instill in their kids.
Earnest says what matters most is the agenda being put forward to advance those values. He says voters will decide in November whether Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton is the best candidate to instill those values in the next generation.
Trump's campaign has dismissed as "just absurd" criticism that two passages in Melania Trump's speech were lifted nearly word-for-word from Mrs. Obama.
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