It's amazing the media is actually picking this up. But they have-on MSNBC at least.
Still I worry. Steve Schmidt and Chris Matthews seemed to want to absolve Melania entirely and just blame the writer.
"Let's call it what it is. If Melania were a black woman from Chicago, she would be being vilified right now!"
https://twitter.com/JimMitchell13/status/755265736013062144
They are working so hard to absolve Melania Trump. But as @VanJones68 said, no one gave Michelle Obama an inch."
https://twitter.com/Trish_AllDay/status/755262236302585861
Melania even claimed she wrote it:
https://twitter.com/AlanKestrel750/status/755256379770806272
No matter what anyone says, though, this is not just about the speechwriter. It's about Donald Trump. the buck stops here as Harry Truman liked to say.
Trump tells us that we should trust him, he's Chief Executive material but he's always passing the buck. That this got by him speaks ill of him.
What really worries me is the idea that Trump might get a gentleman's C from the media. There is the real danger of a Trump curve.
If Hillary gave a plagiarized speech would she get to blame it on her speechwriter? Hell no. They'd probably pillorize her if she sacked the writer: claiming she was just passing the buck. But the MSNBC pundits were just telling Trump to fire the writer.
Don't get me wrong, it doesn't seem that Trump is going to handle this right. He will just deny it as always. This will be something that may have real legs.
So far we're hearing that he and his staff are furious with the media for making a big deal of this.
Now don't get me wrong. Jon Favreau is right really:
"Speakers tonight have basically called the Democratic nominee a criminal, a c*unt, and a murder But this plagiarism thing is the big news!"
https://twitter.com/jonfavs/status/755264902739079168
True. Yet, that's the media. They're kind of pitiful. This is the sort of thing they can sink their teeth into. And I do think that this is an issue. Joe Biden had to drop his campaign in 1988.
I think it says something about the entire campaign as well.
It's like they got Capone on tax evasion. The media has failed to get Trump on other stuff they should have.
But this plagiarism issue is their version of tax evasion. This is going to demand Trump act like a real candidate for President. This is not something he's equipped to do.
You go, Neena Tandeen:
"Gotta say, a Trump plagiarizing Michelle Obama on honor, integrity and hard work is a metaphor for this entire campaign."
https://twitter.com/neeratanden/status/755265649581125636
Still I worry. Steve Schmidt and Chris Matthews seemed to want to absolve Melania entirely and just blame the writer.
"Let's call it what it is. If Melania were a black woman from Chicago, she would be being vilified right now!"
https://twitter.com/JimMitchell13/status/755265736013062144
They are working so hard to absolve Melania Trump. But as @VanJones68 said, no one gave Michelle Obama an inch."
https://twitter.com/Trish_AllDay/status/755262236302585861
Melania even claimed she wrote it:
https://twitter.com/AlanKestrel750/status/755256379770806272
No matter what anyone says, though, this is not just about the speechwriter. It's about Donald Trump. the buck stops here as Harry Truman liked to say.
Trump tells us that we should trust him, he's Chief Executive material but he's always passing the buck. That this got by him speaks ill of him.
What really worries me is the idea that Trump might get a gentleman's C from the media. There is the real danger of a Trump curve.
If Hillary gave a plagiarized speech would she get to blame it on her speechwriter? Hell no. They'd probably pillorize her if she sacked the writer: claiming she was just passing the buck. But the MSNBC pundits were just telling Trump to fire the writer.
Don't get me wrong, it doesn't seem that Trump is going to handle this right. He will just deny it as always. This will be something that may have real legs.
So far we're hearing that he and his staff are furious with the media for making a big deal of this.
Now don't get me wrong. Jon Favreau is right really:
"Speakers tonight have basically called the Democratic nominee a criminal, a c*unt, and a murder But this plagiarism thing is the big news!"
https://twitter.com/jonfavs/status/755264902739079168
True. Yet, that's the media. They're kind of pitiful. This is the sort of thing they can sink their teeth into. And I do think that this is an issue. Joe Biden had to drop his campaign in 1988.
I think it says something about the entire campaign as well.
It's like they got Capone on tax evasion. The media has failed to get Trump on other stuff they should have.
But this plagiarism issue is their version of tax evasion. This is going to demand Trump act like a real candidate for President. This is not something he's equipped to do.
You go, Neena Tandeen:
"Gotta say, a Trump plagiarizing Michelle Obama on honor, integrity and hard work is a metaphor for this entire campaign."
https://twitter.com/neeratanden/status/755265649581125636
I think this makes one more point I think is relevant to the larger Trump campaign.
Melania's speech was meant to give us some sort of window into Trump's soul like Michelle did for Obama in 2008.
In the one thing meant to show sincerity regarding Trump, it turns out he had to lift it from the 'Secret Muslim's' wife.
What Joy Reid and a few others noted is that Melania's speech had not a single anecdote about Trump that only she would know.
The only way she could sound sincere was to steal a sincere wife's words.
Erick Erickson tweeted about it:
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/EWErickson/status/755264266349924352
And RedState is on it:
http://www.redstate.com/leon_h_wolf/2016/07/19/uh-oh-part-melania-trumps-speech-plagiarized-from...-michelle-obama/
And TheResurgent too. Erick really liked her, but he's not covering for it. He's saying it's clearly plagiarism:
http://theresurgent.com/holy-cow-melania-trumps-speech-writer-plagarized-michelle-obamas-speechwriter/
Trump must have put the word out that they're going to claim it's not plagiarism because I just saw some pile of feces GOP senator try to bamboozle Chris Matthews by saying it wasn't plagiarized.
ReplyDeleteI saw the same exchange. Matthews as not having it.
ReplyDeleteThis is sort of like Capone and tax evasion I think.
Some progressives point out that what was really bad tonight was the racism, and talk of throwing your political opponent in jail.
True, but this is the media. They aren't smart enough to call Trump out on racism or saying he'd throw Hilary in jail.
They are smart enough to get him on plagiarism. This actually derailed Biden in 1988.
And Trump is too stupid to see that plagiarism is something else for Beltway types.
This is one sin they must see punished.
Perfect.