Melania Trump faced backlash Tuesday morning amid accusations that her Monday night speech at the Republican National Convention borrowed heavily from the speech First Lady Michelle Obama gave eight years ago.
Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s campaign manager, defended Melania Trump on Tuesday, saying her speech consisted of “common words and values.”
“There’s no cribbing of Michelle Obama’s speech. These were common words and values — that she cares about her family, things like that,” Manafort said in an interview with CNN. “I mean, she was speaking in front of 35 million people last night. She knew that. To think that she would be cribbing Michelle Obama’s words is crazy.”
He blamed the widely critical reaction to the speech on presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
“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. “It’s not going to work.”
Others criticized Melania Trump on social media, with many using the hashtag #FamousMelaniaTrumpQuotes to mockingly attribute the famous words of others to the prospective First Lady.
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Write to Katie Reilly at Katie.Reilly@time.com