Trump writer takes the fall for appearance of plagiarism in Melania Trump speech

CLEVELAND – A writer took responsibility on Wednesday for the "chaos" caused by a speech given by the wife of U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump that drew accusations of plagiarism and cast a shadow over the party's convention this week.

Meredith McIver, a staff writer for the Trump Organization, apologized and offered an explanation that contrasted with two days of efforts by the Trump campaign to deny there had been a problem with Melania Trump's speech on Monday night.

The Republicans' convention in Cleveland, which formally anointed Trump on Tuesday as the party nominee for the Nov. 8 presidential election, was meant to be an occasion for the party to rally around its unorthodox White House candidate after a bitterly divisive primary campaign.

[How a speech for Melania Trump stumbled toward ridicule]

She said Melania Trump had read passages from Michelle Obama's speech to the 2008 Democratic National Convention, when Barack Obama was campaigning for the presidency, over the phone to her as examples. McIver then wrote them down and later included some of the phrasing in a draft that became Melania Trump's speech.

McIver said in her statement that Michelle Obama is a person Melania Trump "has always liked."

Democrats said the speech and the Trump campaign's various explanations over the next 48 hours showed his team was not ready for prime time. The charge was all the more embarrassing because Trump has repeatedly slammed Clinton as untrustworthy.

In his first comments addressing the speech controversy, Trump argued early on Wednesday that the fuss could in fact be a plus for his campaign.

"Good news is Melania's speech got more publicity than any in the history of politics especially if you believe that all press is good press!" Trump wrote on Twitter.

A small section of Melania Trump's roughly 15-minute speech, which was a highlight of the opening day of the convention, was strikingly similar to Michelle Obama's 2008 speech.

'NOT THE CRIME, THE COVER-UP'

Republican strategist Ted Newton, president of Gravity Strategic Communications and a staffer in Republican Mitt Romney's failed 2012 presidential campaign, said the Trump campaign should have come clean much sooner.

"It sort of reflects the old adage: it's not the crime, it's the cover-up," Newton said. "To have it bungled so badly is really a shame and sad for her."

If the campaign had admitted what happened sooner, Newton said, "it would have been a bump in the road."

Under pressure to explain what had happened and who was to blame over the speech, Trump's people offered different versions of events on Monday and Tuesday, and did not admit that the speech had borrowed from Michelle Obama's words.

Hours before giving the speech, Melania Trump, a Slovenian-born jewelry designer and former model, told NBC's "Today" that she had written it with as little help as possible. But her husband's campaign manager, Paul Manafort, told CBS' "This Morning" on Tuesday that it was a collaboration with speechwriters.

McIver said she had offered to resign over the speech controversy, but Trump and his family had rejected the offer. The Trump Organization is owned by Donald Trump.

Trump was making a show of solidarity on Wednesday with his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, a social conservative who is at odds with the New York businessman on many issues. Pence is the keynote speaker on Wednesday, the third day of a convention that ends on Thursday night when Trump accepts the nomination.

Trump made an arrival in Cleveland on Wednesday fitting with his larger-than-life personality, landing in a helicopter emblazoned with his last name on the tail. Playing over the loudspeakers was the soaring tune of the movie "Air Force One." Stepping off the aircraft, he greeted Pence and was handed a microphone.

He told a crowd that Pence is "going to make an unbelievable vice president of the United States."

"We're excited to hear you address the nation tomorrow night," Pence said. "I'm confident that what begins in Cleveland will end in the White House."

NOT AS BAD AS 'MANY MARRIAGES'

Pence has been well-received by people in the party's social conservative wing, who have been skeptical of Trump's commitment to opposing abortion and same-sex marriage.

Social conservatives trust his vice presidential candidate, but joint appearances between the two men have been awkward.

Trump and Pence shared the stage only briefly on Saturday when Pence publicly agreed to be Trump's running mate, and their first televised interview together, on CBS's "60 Minutes," was not smooth.

For example, asked about Pence's support for the Iraq war while he was a U.S. lawmaker, Trump responded, "I don't care," saying Pence was allowed to make occasional mistakes. When the interviewer asked if Clinton should get the same wiggle room on her own vote for the war when she was a U.S. senator, Trump said, "No."

Manafort said Trump and Pence had begun to gel. "They may have different personalities but they have similar visions," he told reporters on Wednesday. "I'm comfortable that it's a less awkward situation than I've seen in many marriages."