Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 07:13 pm
If you’re a student, and you plagiarize something either intentionally or inadvertently, just tell your professor that it’s okay, because “applies to your life.” It should all be okay then. That’s what Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade ” said Tuesday on Fox & Friends.
The world is aware by now that Melania Trump plagiarized Michele Obama’s 2008 Democratic convention speech. At the very least, her speechwriters knew what they were doing. Yet nobody in the Trump camp has said a word of apology. Nor should we expect them to. Trump never apologizes, no matter how in the wrong he is.
That does not stop others from making excuses for him, however.
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Watch Kilmeade at work courtesy of Media Matters for America:
STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): But without a doubt, the speaker everybody was looking forward to was Melania Trump, because her husband Donald said on this program yesterday that he was going to actually show up to introduce her.
[…]
AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST): I think she represents women very well. She’s poised. She’s polished. She represents the American dream. She teaches. She talks about teaching her son Barron the same values that we all grew up with, working hard. Here’s a lady who’s not from this country and she could become the First Lady of the United States of America. If that’s not the American dream, I don’t know what is.
DOOCY: Well put.
BRIAN KILMEADE (CO-HOST): She knows five languages, this is just one of them.
EARHARDT: Smart.
KILMEADE: So, she comes out. She reads this speech, and she goes abroad and brings things up about we would not know about Donald Trump. You know, what kind of father he is. Yeah, talks about how he does not judge people by their religion, does not judge people by their backgrounds, how much money they make, and how patriotic he is. I think it’s great. I think a lot of people are pointing to the fact that there’s some passages that are very similar to Michelle Obama. And I’m astounded to — you know, we have to go to bed at some point. And this is on at late. I’m astounded to wake up and everybody’s talking about, “Well well she plagiarized some parts of the speech. It’s exactly like Michelle Obama in 2008.” So you read them, and they are very similar. And, you know, the speechwriter that crafted together has got people to answer to.
DOOCY: Well she said she wrote it herself.
KILMEADE: But the other thing, Steve — but I will say this, Steve, it actually applies to her life. It talks about her parents and the values and the values she wants to put to her kids. I got a chance to talk to her off-camera. We go to all those Apprentice finales and we have a good time. And all she talks about is her kids. And we met her parents, and that’s all they talk about.
Kilmeade is astounded. Yes, he admits the speechwriters have “people to answer to” but he really doesn’t see what the fuss is about because another person’s words apply to her own life. That isn’t how it works.
This is just the beginning of Trump’s troubles down the stretch. His campaign is a mess and Melania Trump’s speech illustrates the problem. As Joe Scarborough noted Tuesday on Morning Joe “We had somebody that works with us saying ‘well they should fire somebody except they have nobody to fire.'”
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
