July 19, 2016

Trump Campaign: Melania Didn’t Plagiarize Anything. It’s All Just a Big Coincidence.

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This is such classic Trump. Here is campaign manager Paul Manafort responding to charges that Melania Trump plagiarized part of Michelle Obama’s 2008 speech:

“There’s no cribbing of Michelle Obama’s speech. These are common words and values that she cares about her family, things like that,” he continued when asked by anchor Chris Cuomo about the plagiarism allegations. “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. This is once again an example of when a woman threatens Hillary Clinton, how she seeks out to demean her and take her down. It’s not going to work.”

No cribbing! These were universal ideas that Melania just happened to express using the exact same words as Michelle did eight years ago!

Could anything be more Trumpish? Faced with clear video evidence of lying or wrongdoing, they just deny that anything happened. It’s remarkable. Who would have thought that an entire campaign could be based on the notion of listening to their own words and then claiming with a straight face that they never said them? They bring entirely new meanings to the phrase “reality-based community.” Karl Rove must be jealous.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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