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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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do things differently in the aftermath of a political crisis: Watergate. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after, and go deep on, stories others don’t. And we’re a nonprofit newsroom because we knew corporations and billionaires would never fund the journalism we do. Our reporting makes a difference in policies and people’s lives changed.

And we need your support like never before to vigorously fight back against the existential threats American democracy and journalism face. We’re running behind our online fundraising targets and urgently need all hands on deck right now. We can’t afford to come up short—we have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

Please help with a donation today if you can—even just a few bucks helps. Not ready to donate but interested in our work? Sign up for our Daily newsletter to stay well-informed—and see what makes our people-powered, not profit-driven, journalism special.

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