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| Melania Trump gives speech in Berwyn, PA (Getty Images) |
“It is never okay when a 12-year-old girl or boy is mocked, bullied or attacked,” she said. “It is terrible when it happens on the playground, and it is absolutely unacceptable when it is done by someone with no name hiding on the Internet. We have to find a better way to talk to each other.”
Melania Trump is known to prefer staying at home and raising her 10 year old son, Baron but she took to the campaign trail for her husband, Donald Trump to address family values and preserving the purity of youth in her latest speech.
"We must find better ways to honor and support the basic goodness of our children, especially in social media," she said. "It will be one of the main focuses of my work, if I am privileged enough to become your first lady."
The potential first lady did not make any reference to any of Donald Trump’s past tweets in her speech which drew wide criticism from Anderson Cooper, host of CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360.
“Her husband is part of the problem. We all know he’s made fun of people’s looks and people’s intelligence,” he said.
Donald Trump has 12.9 million followers on Twitter and has been known for sending tweets at all hours of day or night during this election season. The Washington Post reported that as of September 16, 2016 Donald Trump had sent out a total of 170 tweets where he referred to someone as a “loser”.
“Look at that face,” Trump said. “Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president? I mean, she’s a woman, and I’m not supposed to say bad things, but really, folks, come on. Are we serious?”
Melania’s husband also created controversy when a 2005 recording obtained by the Washington Post was released showing Donald Trump talking to Billy Bush about women in vulgar terms and appearing to justify sexual assault. The NY Times provided a transcript of the conversation.
“And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything,” he said. “Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.”
Former President Bill Clinton took time during campaigning for his wife in Colorado to give his thoughts on Melania Trump’s speech.
“I never felt so bad for anybody in my life as I did for his wife going out giving a speech saying, Oh, cyber bullying was a terrible thing,” Clinton said. “I thought, Yeah, especially if it's done at 3 o’clock in the morning against a former Miss Universe by a guy running for president."
Clinton was referencing former Miss Universe Alicia Machado who reported that Donald Trump called her “fat” and “Miss Piggy” while making references to her weight and eating habits.
Melania Trump’s latest speech created controversy on the internet early as she opened by talking about her humble youth in Slovenia and her dreams of immigrating to America.
“America meant if you could dream it, you could become it,” Trump said.
That line from Trump’s speech appeared to show similarities to past quotes that Donald Trump’s second ex-wife, Marla Maples gave in a 2011 interview with Maximum Ink Magazine in which she discussed her own humble upbringing in rural Georgia.
“Even though I was from a small town of 500 people, I learned to dance, play clarinet, and play trumpet, all while playing every sport I was allowed to as a southern-born tomboy,” Maples said. “I believed if you could dream it you could become it, so I didn’t see life as having any limitations. I was blessed.”
Three months ago at the Republican National Convention Melania Trump gave a speech that was widely criticized for plagiarizing some lines from a speech made by Michelle Obama at the Democratic National Convention in 2008. A speechwriter later accepted responsibility for writing the plagiarized portions of Trump’s first speech.
The new plagiarism accusations are coming at the same time the Associated Press is reporting that Melania Trump was paid for 10 modelling jobs in the United States in 1996 worth $20,056 before she was legally permitted to work in the country. The AP cited detailed ledgers as well as a signed contract she had signed with her modeling agency which referenced the payments.
Donald Trump has made immigration reform one of the top platforms of his campaign. The 2016 U.S. Presidential Election is on Tuesday, November 8th.
