Meredith McIver is the in-house staff writer who has admitted to writing Melania Trump's speech from July 18 at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio.
In the statement released on Wednesday, McIver says when she was working with Melania, they discussed many people who inspired her and they talked about the message she wanted to share with the American people from the stage at the Republican National Convention. Melania told McIver that she has always liked First Lady, Michelle Obama and read some passages over the phone from Mrs. Obama's speech. McIver says she wrote the passages down and she ended up including some of the "phrasing" in the speech. Those phrases made the final speech which Melania gave in Cleveland on July 18.
Mrs. Obama's past speeches were not checked by the speechwriter and she owned up to that mistake in the statement.
"I feel terrible for the chaos I have caused Melania and the Trumps, as well as to Mrs. Obama. No harm was meant."
Amid the controversy and plagiarism accusations that the Trump campaign was facing, McIver offered to resign from the Trump organization but she says Donald Trump rejected her resignation. According to the statement, Donald Trump told her "people make innocent mistakes and that we learn and grow from these experiences."
She says she released the statement because she "did not like seeing the way this was distracting from Mr. Trump's historic campaign for president and Melania's beautiful message and presentation."
McIver closed the statement with an apology and said she feels honored to work for such a great family and organization.
