So that was Wednesday morning.
This is Wednesday by noon:
"Over the phone, she read me some passages from Mrs. Obama’s speech as examples. I wrote them down and later included some of the phrasing in the draft that ultimately became the final speech. I did not check Mrs. Obama’s speeches," McIver said in the statement. "This was my mistake, and I feel terrible for the chaos I have caused Melania and the Trumps, as well as to Mrs. Obama. No harm was meant."I don't believe it for a minute. I think the Trumps just finally dredged up a fall guy, not least because Trump was mocking the whole issue earlier. But here's the question:
Who's in charge here?
The candidate dismisses the contretemps by comparing it to the FBI e-mail investigation. The campaign manager goes on TeeVee to say it never happened, uh-uh, not at all. And then the Trump Organization releases a statement blaming it on a former ballet instructor and ghostwriter/in-house staff writer at the Trump Organization.
But plagiarism is the most grievous sin any writer can commit:
“The most cardinal rule of any speech-writing operation is that you cannot plagiarize,” said Mr. Latimer, the Bush speechwriter, who is now a partner at Javelin, a communications firm. If you do, he said, “you lose your job.”
Well, unless you work for Trump.
Which returns us to the question: is this who we want to be in charge? (and does he want to be in charge? Signs point to "No." But that's another story, still.)
I don't think I could give a speech I hadn't written, myself. I can understand a president on the job not having the time to write his own speech, but this isn't the case with Ms. Trump.
ReplyDeleteYeah, this is someone agreeing to serve as the fall-gal for the Trump campaign. I only hope its incredible lack of organization sinks it to the bottom in November, but I'm a pessimist by culture.