Brewer speaks with WVII about Melania Trump speech plagiarism allegations
Mark Brewer, a political science professor at the University of Maine, spoke with WVII (Channel 7) for a report about speech plagiarism allegations against Melania Trump. After the wife of presidential candidate Donald Trump spoke at the Republican National Convention, it was found portions of her speech were similar to first lady Michelle Obama’s 2008 Democratic National Convention Speech, according to the report. Despite the Trump campaign saying this isn’t an instance of plagiarism, Brewer disagreed, saying the claim “doesn’t pass the straight face test.” “If I had a student, for example, come to me and say, ‘Well, this isn’t plagiarism,’ I wouldn’t buy it because it clearly is. The question isn’t, ‘Is there plagiarism or isn’t there?’ because I think it pretty clearly is. I think the question now is intent and who is responsible for it,” he said. Brewer added he doubts this will be “fatal” for the campaign, but it could be damaging, the report states.