Melania Trump came under heavy fire on social media Monday night for her speech at the Republican National Convention after she was accused of plagiarizing two passages from Michelle Obama’s address to the Democratic National Convention in 2008.
Donald Trump’s campaign manager later denied the speech was lifted from Obama.
“There’s no cribbing of Michelle Obama’s speech,” Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign manager told CNN. “Certainly, there’s no feeling on her part that she did it,” he said. “What she did was use words that are common words.”
WATCH the two speeches side by side:
Here’s just one example (you can see a full comparison here)
Michelle Obama’s speech, delivered at the 2008 Democratic National Convention:
“Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values: like, you work hard for what you want in life…”
Melania Trump’s speech, delivered Monday night:
“From a young age, my parents impressed on me the values that you work hard for what you want in life…”
The hashtag #FamousMelaniaTrumpQuotes began to trend as social media users began to tweet famous song lyrics, movie quotes and lines from famous speeches, attributing the words to Trump.
Melania also apparently “Rickrolled” the convention by quoting a lyric from Rick Astley’s hit song “Never Gonna Give You Up.”
Referring to her husband, Melania said “he will never, ever, give up. And, most importantly, he will never, ever, let you down.”
Have a listen:
Again, her comments went viral.
-with a file from Nicole Bogart.