The Trump campaign is now blaming Hillary Clinton for Melania’s plagiarism scandal

Viewers of last night’s Republican National Convention speeches were quick to point out strong similarities between a passage in Melania Trump’s remarks and those that first lady Michelle Obama gave during the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

The Trump campaign now says any allegations of plagiarism are "crazy" — and that any attacks Melania has received are the result of her criticizing presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

"Once again, this is an example of when a woman threatens Hillary Clinton, she seeks to demean her and take her down," Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort said in an early Tuesday morning interview with CNN.

Manafort painted it as absurd that Melania would attempt to plagiarize her remarks given the size of her audience and how many people she knows she would reach.

"She was speaking in front of a crowd of 35 million people last night; she knew that," Manafort said. "To think that she would be cribbing Michelle Obama’s words is crazy."

The Trump campaign also released a statement late last night saying that Melania worked with a "team of writers" who "took notes on her life’s inspirations, and in some instances included fragments that reflected their own thinking."

There are two paragraphs of Melania’s speech that sounded a lot like Michelle Obama’s

The passage in question from Melania’s speech centered on the importance of hard work and ambition. These are the two paragraphs, in particular, that have come under scrutiny.

This video shows how much the two speeches overlap:

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