Donald Trump's campaign chairman Paul Manafort took just one question about Melania Trump's speech to the Republican National Convention from reporters at a
press briefing Tuesday morning before tersely telling them to move on to another topic.
"Are there any other questions on different topics, because I'm not going to keep saying the same thing," said Manafort, who had been on several television shows Tuesday morning to talk about the speech and complaints that parts of it matched a speech given by First Lady Michelle Obama, when President Barack Obama was first running for the White House.
"First of all, we think that Melania Trump's speech was a great speech," Manafort told the press briefing on Tuesday. "It talked about her coming to America, it talked about the story that focused on immigration and the right way to do it, and it talked about her love of the country and how it developed."
She also talked about family and family values, "themes that are personal to her, but they're personal to a lot of people, depending on the stories of their lives," he continued.
"Obviously, Michelle Obama feels very much the similar sentiments towards her family."
The speech did share some similar words, Manafort acknowledged, but they were words like "care and respect and compassion . . . those are not extraordinary words."
He further complained that Hillary Clinton's camp was the "first to get it out there" that the speech shared similarities with Michelle Obama's.
"As far as we're concerned, when Hillary Clinton is threatened by a female, the first thing she does is try to destroy the person," he said. "It's politics. We recognize it and then we're going to move on."
Manafort, meanwhile, pointed out that the Trump campaign is excited by the fact that he will become to the official nominee of the Republican Party.
"All of you who doubted that he could be nominated will no longer be able to say, 'Yes, but maybe it won't happen.' It will have happened and we're excited about that."
Today's convention theme will be "Make America Work Again," Manafort said, and the talk will be not only about jobs, but "in the context of the function of the government of the fact that it isn't functioning again. The theme of failed leadership will be emphasized."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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