New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday morning brushed off questions about the portions of Melania Trump’s Monday night speech lifted from the speech Michelle Obama delivered at the 2008 Democratic convention.
Matt Lauer, co-host of NBC’s “Today,” asked Christie if he could “make a case for plagiarism.”
“No, not when 93 percent of the speech is completely different than Michelle Obama’s speech. And they expressed some common thoughts,” Christie said in response before pivoting to say that the first day of a convention is typically the worst day.
Paul Manafort, the chair of the Donald Trump campaign, also denied that the speech took portions from Michelle Obama’s speech, arguing that the two speeches simply contained “common words and values.”
Watch Christie on “Today” via NBC News:
Plagiarism?
“Not when 93% of the speech is completely different than Michelle Obama’s speech.” –@GovChristie https://t.co/C280sUME33— TODAY (@TODAYshow) July 19, 2016
