In taking responsibility for lifting much of two paragraphs from a speech by Michelle Obama, Trump campaign staff writer Meredith McIver did more than uncover her own part in the drama surrounding Melania Trump’s convention speech. She also inadvertently highlighted the unfair and frankly hateful way Donald Trump has treated the Obamas.
It seems that despite her husband’s open contempt for the first family, Melania Trump found much to admire in Michelle Obama. McIver, in her statement, said,
“In working with Melania Trump on her recent first lady speech, we discussed many people who inspired her and messages she wanted to share with the American people. A person she has always liked is Michelle Obama. Over the phone, she read me some passages from Mrs. Obama’s speech as examples.”
Bless Melania’s heart, I do feel bad for her and the spot she was put in, but I think Donald Trump and his campaign should take it to heart when she says she admires Michelle Obama, and was moved by her American upbringing and the values the Obamas raise their kids on.
That’s because so much of his campaign, and so much of this convention, has been about impugning the Americanness and legitimacy of the Obamas — and that is just not where the American people are.
The thing the American people admire most about President Obama is that he is a good family man. They love the first lady. The kind of hate directed toward President Obama that Donald Trump has relied on for the last five years, in part by his championing the “birther” cause that disputed whether the President is truly a citizen of this country, is never going to be embraced by a majority of the American people. That’s the lesson the Trump campaign should take away from all this.
In the brief time before the plagiarism surfaced, Melania Trump’s speech was hailed as a breakthrough moment for the Trump campaign. It still can be — if they listen to what she was saying.