DNC chair surprised there's no Trump campaign admission Melania Trump copied speech
Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz is surprised that Republicans haven't yet set the record straight on accusations Melania Trump's speech lifted language from First Lady Michelle Obama.
"It's just one in a series of examples of just how unprepared, disorganized and chaotic their campaign is," Schultz said in an interview with CBS News' Nancy Cordes, "and if you can't even run his campaign efficiently and ensure that one of their main principal speakers isn't delivering a portion of her address that's been plagiarized, then what does that say about his ability to run the country?"
Schultz emphasized that the drama surrounding the speech was only a fraction of what appears to be an offbeat, disunited GOP convention "not really ready for the prime time."
Donald Trump's campaign manager, Paul Manafort, insisted on "CBS This Morning," the speech "was her vision of what she wanted to communicate about her husband" and there was no reason to fire the speechwriter who assisted Trump's wife with her address.
"They're a couple of phrases. It's basically three places in the speech and its fragments of words," he said. "She knew what she was doing. And she never cribbed from another speech without acknowledging that she was quoting somebody else."
But Schultz noted that RNC Chairman Reince Priebus disagreed with Manafort and had said he'd probably fire the speechwriter.
Schultz said she herself has fired staffers in the past for plagiarism and makes it her priority to catch things before they're published or addressed in public.
"You know, there are tools, digital tools that you can use to run comparisons," Schultz said. "That's something that we do regularly on my congressional staff."
Schultz has not spoken with anyone in the White House about Melania Trump's speech, but she promised the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia next week would be free of plagiarism, a "marked and stark contrast from what we see here."
CBS news' Allyson Ross Taylor contributed to this report