My fault, not hers! Meredith McIver, an in-house writer for the Trump organization, is taking the blame for Melania Trump‘s Republican National Convention speech. McIver released a statement on Wednesday, July 20, amid allegations that the aspiring first lady appeared to take two paragraphs from an address that Michelle Obama made during the 2008 Democratic National Convention.
NBC posted McIver’s letter on Twitter. In it, she claims that she accidentally included Obama’s past remarks while writing the speech with the former model.
“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. I wrote them down and later included some of the phrasing in the draft that ultimately became the final speech,” McIver explained.
JUST IN: Trump Org. writer takes blame for Melania Trump’s speech; asserts she offered resignation but was rejected. pic.twitter.com/Eq92hZiqmb
— NBC Nightly News (@NBCNightlyNews) July 20, 2016
“I did not check Mrs. Obama’s speeches,” she continued. “This was my mistake, and I feel terrible for the chaos I have caused Melania and the Trumps, as well as to Mrs. Obama. No harm was meant.”
McIver offered her resignation to GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump on Tuesday. But, according to McIver, he and his family “rejected” it.
“Mr. Trump told me that people make innocent mistakes and that we learn and grow from these experiences,” she added. “I asked to put out this statement because I did not like seeing the way this was distracting from Mr. Trump’s historic campaign for president and Melania’s beautiful message and presentation. I apologize for the confusion and hysteria my mistake has caused. Today more than ever, I am honored to work for such a great family. I personally admire the way Mr. Trump has handled this situation and I am grateful for his understanding.”
Earlier this week, Melania, 46, opened up about her writing process during an interview with the Today show’s Matt Lauer. “I read once over it and that’s all because I wrote it with [as] little help as possible,” she said on Monday.
As previously reported, the similarities between Melania and Michelle’s speeches caused a frenzy on social media, and the hashtag #FamousMelaniaTrumpQuotes was created. Users posted the hashtag while joking that Melania was also behind some of the most famous quotes in history.
Watch the speeches in the video above.
