TRUMP’S CAMPAIGN TEAM CIRCLES TO PROTECT THE “BOSS” & HIS WIFE

…Melania Trump’s speech should have “borrowed” some items from American political humorist, Will Rogers

 

It’s disgusting that the Trump campaign, once again won’t admit that they made a mistake with Melania’s speech.

 

I think that when Trump’s Convention and Campaign Manager, Paul Manafort, defended Melania Trump's speech by blaming the Clinton campaign, that basically set the theme for the whole Republican National Convention.  I guess we are all just supposed to instead go after Hillary, while ignoring the fact that there were six sections of Melania’s speech where she used the same word-for-word statements from Michelle Obama’s 2008 speech. 

 

As Kathleen Parker wrote for the Washington Post: “Imitation may be the highest form of flattery, but plagiarism, not so much.”

 

No, this wasn’t using some famous quote from Shakespeare, Ben Franklin, Mark Twain or even the political humorist, Will Rogers.

 

This was a blatant and stupid move by someone within the Trump campaign who actually thought that no one would notice that more than 60 words, in almost the exact same sentences, had been lifted from Michelle Obama’s speech and slipped into Melania’s speech.

 

Even though Melania has said she mostly wrote the speech, upon further investigation, it was found that a number of individuals were involved with the speech.

 

This is just one more example of the lack of professionalism and having a lack of experienced campaign personnel as a part of the Trump campaign.

 

A number of former campaign workers from both sides of the isle have come forward to say that before any political campaign speech is given the go-ahead, it is usually screened and checked through multiple fact-checking actions before it is finally approved.

 

As with so many screw-ups with the Trump campaign, this was just one more example of a novice politician and a novice campaign team.

 

When the current First Lady originally gave her speech, she wasn’t the First Lady yet.  But her speech was very original for Michelle, and it was full of authenticity and the future First Lady’s real passion.  But it was later discovered that someone had  included Michelle’s words in Melania’s speech, a speech that was at first accepted as an excellent speech and as an introduction of the wife of the Republican party’s nominee.

 

It was truly disgusting how the Trump campaign, by not doing their due-diligence of fact checking, Paul Manafort and his team just basically, “threw Melania Trump under the bus”.  And this is especially true when instead of admitting that they had screwed up and that it wasn’t done with malice of forethought, they instead then threw bogus accusations at the Clinton campaign.  Plus so far, no one on the Trump team has been fired or had their hands slapped for such a big mistake.

 

Some of the Republican’s at the convention such as Sean Spicer, the RNC Communications Director, he actually went on the morning TV programs and tried to just say that the screw-ups were not screw ups.  “They just happened to be similar words to what Michelle said in her speech.”  Yes, he really tried to say that 60 words that were said exactly the same way and in the same order were "just a coincidence".  Even the experts have said that, “It’s a 1 in a trillion chance that Melania Trump speech wasn't plagiarism.”

 

As Ms. Parker also wrote, “How simple it would have been the day after to say ‘oops’ and move along.  As always, the handling of the episode has become the real story.  Donald Trump, the man who frequently says ‘Believe me’ and ‘Trust me,’ may need to tweak his message.”

 

But that’s not a “Trump Trait”.  Donald J. Trump never apologizes nor says he’s sorry.

 

Being true to form, Paul Manafort denied any plagiarism the next morning, and he continues to deny.  In a matter of just hours, there were several revisions and amendments, but it was still a denial of plagiarism.  They still tried to say that Melania Trump wrote the speech herself, while others inside the campaign said that a number of individuals were involved.  (As usual in the Trump camp, not all the player are kept informed as to what the latest word is to the outside.)

 

Look, there is no doubt that only a small group that feels seriously as to the importance of this somewhat scandalous issue regarding this intellectual property.  But it is just another sign of the incompetence of the overall Trump campaign.  Is this the type of individual that we want running the most important nation on the face of the earth?  I don’t think so.

 

I have started having a lot of respect for some of the latest Clinton campaign TV ads.  This respect comes from the fact that the ads do not have the traditional background voice saying negative things against Donald Trump.  Instead, they just offer a series of video excerpts from Trumps own rallies where they show him saying the ridiculous or stupid things he supports.  Whether it’s the deporting of 11 million Hispanics, the banning of all Muslims, Trump saying, “She had blood coming out of her eyes, out of wherever,” mocking the movements of a disabled reporter, using vulgar language in his speeches, or even encouraging violence at his own rallies.  All they have to do is show Donald Trump in his own environment.  Then it’s up to you to decide if this is who you want in the White House.

 

Let’s face it, it’s writers like me that are the ones that show so much caring about plagiarism, because of the obvious risks and subsequent consequences to writers.

 

We also know that political leaders and chief executives have to rely on staff and speechwriters to get things right. And sometimes they screw up.

 

But in these high-profile cases, these individuals are usually fired.  That’s apparently not an issue for an organization that is in full support of a leader that lies so much on a regular basis.

 

It pretty obvious that what is going on is to protect the boss and his wife, period, the end.

 

I will end this article with a final Kathleen Parker quote: “Melania is an immigrant and a retired model. She’s not a professional writer. To prepare for her debut, she wanted to see what other first ladies have said in their speeches. She was so moved by Mrs. Obama’s speech that she wanted to offer some of those same thoughts. She just doesn’t understand the rules about “borrowing” others’ words. They coulda made lemonade. Instead, poor Melania was left holding lemons.”

 

I don’t know if this is really true, but I think it’s what we all hope is the truth.  I doubt we will ever know for sure.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2016