Melania Trump Plagiarized Her Convention Speech From Michelle Obama

In her first major address before the nation on Monday night, Melania Trump appears to have plagiarized a number of lines from first lady Michelle Obamas speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. The plagiarized passages, in bold below, concerned the importance of hard work and honesty.

From a young age, my parents impressed on me the values that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say and keep your promise; that you treat people with respect, Trump told the thousands of Republican delegates and assembled media on Monday night in Cleveland.

In 2008, Mrs. Obama said, You work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say youre going to do; that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you dont know them, and even if you dont agree with them.

Trumps spouse also lifted a line about children from Michelle Obama , saying, We want our children in this nation to know that the only limit to your achievements is the strength of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.

In 2008, Michelle Obama said, We want our children and all children in this nation to know that the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.

The Huffington Post reached out to the Trump campaign about the lifted lines, but a spokeswoman did not reply to the questions. A party spokesperson said the Republican National Committee would not be commenting on the issue.

Melania Trump was born in Slovenia, and English is one of a number of languages she speaks. Her Monday night primetime speech was the highlight of the first night of the 2016 Republican National Convention.

Regardless of whether the Trumps watched Michelle Obamas speech in 2008 live, we do know that Donald Trump enjoyed her 2012 address.

Very good speech by @MichelleObama--and under great pressure--Dems should be proud!

Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2012","type":"rich","meta":{"author":"Donald J. Trump","author_url":"https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump","cache_age":86400,"description":"Very good speech by @MichelleObama--and under great pressure--Dems should be proud!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2012\n","provider_name":"Twitter","title":"Donald J. 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Very good speech by @MichelleObama --and under great pressure--Dems should be proud!
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2012

The apparent plagiarism was originally pointed out by journalist and interior designer Jarrett Hill on Twitter.

Its unclear how much of her speech Melania actually wrote, but earlier in the day she told NBCs Matt Lauer, I read once over it and thats all. Because I wrote it and with [as] little help as possible.

As word of the plagiarism began to spread early Tuesday, Trump supporters on cable news offered little in the way of defense. Jeffrey Lord, a Trump supporter on CNN , said whoever was responsible for the plagiarism should not be there. Overall, however, he downplayed the issue. This is not Benghazi.

So that's pretty blatant, right? pic.twitter.com/EPnHME7afV
— Mike Hearn (@mikehearn) July 19, 2016

As the day continued, the Trump campaign and its supporters offered a slew of reasons for the lifted words including that the plagiarism was a compliment or simply an accident.

Trump communications adviser Jason Miller, in a response early Tuesday, acknowledged that Melania Trumps speech included fragments reflecting her experiences and referred to a team of writers, essentially refuting her claim that she wrote the speech.

In writing her beautiful speech, Melanias team of writers took notes on her lifes inspirations, and in some instances included fragments that reflected her own thinking, Miller said in a statement. Melanias immigrant experience and love for America shone through in her speech, which made it such a success.

Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort on Tuesday tried to shift blame for the plagiarism issue to Hillary Clinton supporters. Theres no cribbing of Michelle Obamas speech, he said on CNNs New Day. These were common words and values that she cares about her family, things like that.

I mean, she was speaking in front of 35 million people last night, Mr. Manafort said. She knew that. To think that she would be cribbing Michelle Obamas words is crazy.

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I mean, this is once again an example of when a woman threatens Hillary Clinton, how she seeks out to demean her and take her down, he said. Its not going to work.

Paul Blumenthal, S.V. Date and Amber Ferguson contributed reporting.

This article has been updated to include two statements from the Trump campaign.

Editors note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar , rampant xenophobe , racist , misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims 1.6 billion members of an entire religion from entering the U.S.