Trump speechwriter apologizes for Melania's speech

Melania Trump, wife of Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump waves to the delegates after her speech during the opening day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Monday, July 18, 2016.
Melania Trump, wife of Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump waves to the delegates after her speech during the opening day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Monday, July 18, 2016.

CLEVELAND (AP) - A speechwriter for Donald Trump's company said Wednesday she made a mistake in using passages from a 2008 Michelle Obama speech in the Republican Party convention speech delivered by Melania Trump.

In a statement issued by the campaign, Meredith McIver took the blame but made it clear Mrs. Trump knew the passages were from the first lady's speech.

"A person she has always liked is Michelle Obama," McIver said of Mrs. Trump. "Over the phone, she read me some passages from Mrs. Obama's speech as examples. I wrote them down and later included some of the phrasing in the draft that ultimately became the final speech."

Questions about plagiarism hung over the opening days of the GOP convention, overshadowing Mrs. Trump's performance, which had enthralled the convention delegates. The statement came after the campaign spent two days insisting it wasn't plagiarism and calling the criticism absurd.

The pushback from the Trump campaign was hard. At one point, campaign co-chairman Paul Manafort blamed Hillary Clinton for the controversy, though he offered no coherent theory on how she could have orchestrated it.

McIver, co-author of some of Donald Trump's books, said she offered to resign, but the Republican nominee for president refused to accept her resignation.

The controversy erupted on social media Monday night after her speech as sharp-eyed viewers expressed outrage over the similarities. It continued Tuesday as the Trump campaign's explanation failed to mollify critics.

The passages in question came near the beginning of Mrs. Trump's nearly 15-minute speech.