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CLEVELAND — A speechwriter for the Donald Trump campaign has taken responsibility for Melania Trump’s much talked about speech.

Meredith Melver said she offered her resignation but Trump refused to accept it.

In a statement, Melver said Melania Trump has always admired Michelle Obama and read her some passages from Mrs. Obama’s 2008 speech as examples of what she wanted to say.

“I wrote them down and later included some of the phrasing in the draft that ultimately the final speech. I did not check Mrs. Obama’s speeches. This was my mistake, and I feel terrible for the chaos I have caused Melania and the Trumps, as well as to Mrs. Obama. No harm was meant.”

Melver said she offered her resignation but Donald Trump but he refused, “Mr. Trump told me that people make innocent mistakes and that we learn and grow from these experiences.”

The controversy quickly overshadowed the speech, which was to have been her introduction to voters. It focused on her immigration to the US and her love for her husband.

Side-by-side comparisons of the transcripts show some text in Trump’s address following, nearly to the word, the first lady’s own from the first night of the Democratic convention in Denver nearly eight years ago.

“The media is spending more time doing a forensic analysis of Melania’s speech than the FBI spent on Hillary’s emails,” Trump said in a tweet.

Here is Melania Trump, on Monday:

“From a young age, my parents impressed on me the values that you work hard for what you want in life, that your word is your bond and you do what you say and keep your promise, that you treat people with respect. They taught and showed me values and morals in their daily lives. That is a lesson that I continue to pass along to our son,” Trump said.

And we need to pass those lessons on to the many generations to follow. Because we want our children in this nation to know that the only limit to your achievements is the strength of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.”

And here is Obama, on August 25, 2008:

“And Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values: that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say you’re going to do; that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don’t know them, and even if you don’t agree with them.

And Barack and I set out to build lives guided by these values, and to pass them on to the next generation. Because we want our children — and all children in this nation — to know that the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.”

The reaction:

“(To be honest), I was more offended by just about every other speech than Melania’s plagiarized paragraphs,” former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau jokingly tweeted as the accusations went viral hours after Trump’s address.

Jarrett Hill seems to have been one of the first to notice the similarities on Twitter.

He’s a big fan of the Obamas, and told CNN over the phone that one particular line from Michelle Obama’s 2008 speech really spoke to him: “To know that the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.”

When he heard Melania Trump start saying “the only limit to your achievements,” he knew something was wrong.

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