Trump aides adopt boss’s policy of no apologies in defending Melania against plagiarism allegations
CLEVELAND — If there’s one thing we know about Donald Trump as a political candidate, it’s that he’s never let facts slow him down.
Among other things, the presumptive Republican nominee regularly claims that he opposed the Iraq War “from the beginning,” which is contradicted by a 2002 interview in which he expressed support for the invasion. He continues to trash Hillary Clinton for using a TelePrompTer — even though he increasingly does, too. And on Monday night, Trump bragged to Fox News that the Republican National Convention was being held in Cleveland because he had “recommended” it — even though the GOP officially named the site in 2014, a year before he kicked off his unlikely bid for the White House.
Of the 182 statements considered on Politifact’s “Truth-o-Meter,” the fact-checking organization found that 75 percent of Trump’s remarks ranked as “mostly false,” “false” or “pants-on-fire.” No other politician has ranked so low on the scale, the group says. But Trump’s stretching of the truth or even outright misstatements haven’t hurt him with voters, who praise him as a blunt-talking candidate who doesn’t adhere to a script.
But if Trump has so far gotten a pass from voters on bending the truth, it’s unclear if his campaign operatives will be granted the same leeway. On Tuesday, the Trump campaign aggressively pushed back against charges that Melania Trump’s prime-time speech Monday lifted passages from first lady Michelle Obama’s 2008 convention speech — insisting that no plagiarism was committed, in spite of their obvious similarities.
“There’s no cribbing of Michelle Obama’s speech. These were common words and values that she cares about her family and things like that,” Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign chairman and chief strategist, told CNN, even after the network, and other media, played a side-by-side comparison of the speeches, highlighting similar words and phrases.
Manafort further implied that the Democrats had an ulterior motive, accusing the Clinton campaign of dirty tricks in attacking Trump’s spouse. He cited this as “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,” Manafort declared, an accusation he repeated in other interviews.
Later, offering a response to Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus’ statement that someone should be “fired” for borrowing from the speech, Manafort told AP he agreed, but again denied any wrongdoing. “Frankly, if I knew somebody did it, I would fire them too,” he said.
The response mystified Republicans both inside and outside the Trump campaign, who questioned why staffers were prolonging a story that is personally embarrassing to Melania Trump, who has been a noticeably reticent partner in her husband’s campaign. Monday’s speech was only her second public remarks since her husband announced his candidacy in June 2015 — and according to aides, Mrs. Trump initially pushed back against taking a speaking role at the RNC.
On Tuesday, a Trump staffer who declined to be identified discussing the internal dynamics of the campaign told Yahoo News that aides had been told to echo Manafort’s response to the controversy, which has cast a shadow over the convention, as Trump tries to win over Republicans skeptical about his candidacy.
But some Trump advisers were struggling to stick to those marching orders. In an interview with MSNBC, Sam Clovis, a co-chairman and top policy adviser for the campaign, suggested that the mix-up was a staff error. “I’m sure what happened is the person who was helping write this plucked something in there and probably an unfortunate oversight — and certainly Melania didn’t have anything to do with it,” he said.
For his part, Trump is said to be furious over the handling of the speech, but so far, he has offered no public response to the controversy. That’s uncharacteristic for a candidate who brags of “punching back” when he feels he’s been boxed in — even in the case of a self-inflicted mistake. But it’s an open question whether that will work for Manafort and other campaign operatives, who, so far, have refused to cede any ground on the controversy and who are being blamed by Trump’s allies for mishandling the speech.
Rick Davis, a longtime GOP operative who ran New Mexico Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential bid, said the campaign’s response reflects the candidate’s style.“Trump doesn’t apologize,” Davis said. “That’s his M.O., and he believes that’s worked for him.” Offering a “mea culpa,” Davis said, probably wouldn’t have ended the story.
Many Republican operatives, including critics of Trump, declined to comment for this story, citing their sympathy for Melania Trump. “She’s been humiliated by this campaign, and the longer it goes on, it only gets worse,” a Republican campaign veteran said.
But other Republicans suggested that the story will not have a lasting impact on Melania Trump’s image or her husband’s campaign. “I’m not concerned about this potential overlap of language. We’ve all been caught in situations where there’s similarities, and so forth,” Georgia Sen. David Perdue told Yahoo News. “If we’re going to focus on that as a word, let’s talk about Hillary Clinton being a plagiarist of Obama’s policies.”
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