New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has leaped to the defense of Melania Trump, insisting that most of the speech Donald Trump's wife delivered to the Republican National Convention on Monday night was not lifted from one given by Michelle Obama to the Democratic National Convention in 2008.
Asked Tuesday on NBC's "
Today" show if the sometimes word-for-word similarities in the two speeches could be considered plagiarism, Christie told Matt Lauer:
"No. Not when 93 percent of the speech is completely different from Michelle Obama's speech … They express some common thoughts."
When Lauer shot back, "it's almost word-for-word," Christie, an adviser to Trump, shrugged it off as last night's news.
"The worst day of the convention is the first day. After tonight, we won't be talking about this," he said.
"And I know Melania. I think she worked very hard on that speech. A lot of what I heard last night sounded very much like her," Christie said.
In an interview with NBC News, Trump spokesman Jason Miller owned up to the similarities.
"In writing her beautiful speech, Melania's team of writers took notes on her life's inspirations, and in some instances included fragments that reflected her own thinking," Miller said.
But Melania Trump told NBC that "I wrote it" and added that she "had a little help."
Among the similarities:
In Melania's speech, she said: "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. They taught and showed me values and morals in their daily life."
In Michelle Obama's speech, she said: "And Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values: like, you work hard for what you want in life, that your word is your bond, that you do what you say you're going to do, that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don't know them and even if you don't agree with them."
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