2 Melania Trump Passages Mirror 2008 Michelle Obama Speech
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Melania Trump's well-received speech Monday to the Republican National Convention contains two passages that match nearly word-for-word the speech that first lady Michelle Obama delivered in 2008 at the Democratic National Convention.
The passages in question focus on lessons that Donald Trump's wife says she learned from her parents and the relevance of their lessons in her experience as a mother. They came near the beginning of her roughly 10-minute speech. Mrs. Trump's address was otherwise distinct from the address that Mrs. Obama gave when then-Sen. Barack Obama was being nominated for president.
WATCH: Melania Trump speaks at GOP Convention
Trump's campaign had no immediate reaction when asked about the similarities in the two speeches. White House officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment late Monday evening.
READ MORE: Did Melania Trump plagiarize from Michelle Obama?
Trump claimed to have penned the speech on her own, mostly.
"I wrote it -- with a little help as possible," Melania Trump told NBC News' Matt Lauer in an interview Monday.
After the first night of the convention former top Obama adviser David Axelrod was calling Trump's speech "flat out plagiarism."
"Whoever did that was grossly irresponssible," he said on CNN, wondering, "How could anyone be so fundamentally stupid?"
Trump campaign Senior Communications Advisor Jason Miller issued a statement saying, "In writing her beautiful speech, Melania's team of writers took notes on her life's inspirations, and in some instances included fragments that reflected her own thinking. Melania's immigrant experience and love for America shone through in her speech, which made it such a success."
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