CLEVELAND _ Donald Trump's campaign chief tried to cut off and brush off questions about the apparent plagiarism in Melania Trump's convention speech, refusing to say Tuesday whether he reviewed the speech or whether anyone on the campaign would face discipline.
Paul Manafort again blamed Hillary Clinton and the media for bringing attention to "50 words, and that includes 'ands' and 'thes' and things like that" that were remarkably similar to Michelle Obama's 2008 convention speech.
Manafort, speaking to reporters at a morning briefing at the Cleveland Convention Center, refused to concede the passages were lifted from Obama and said the controversy was prompting the media to "distort that message" and was "totally ignoring the facts of the speech itself."
"These are themes that are personal to her, but they're personal to a lot of people depending on the stories of their lives," he said, recounting Melania Trump's focus on her own story and what he called "family values." "Obviously, Michelle Obama feels very much similar sentiments towards her family."
"'Care' and 'respect' and 'passion,' those are not extraordinary words," he said.
Using the now-familiar Trump playbook, Manafort refused to back down or apologize. Instead, he tried to use the moment to rally supporters, by repeating an argument he made on a morning television show, that it was Clinton's fault.
"There's a political tint to this whole issue, and certainly we've noted that the Clinton camp was the first to get it out there and tried to say that there was something untoward about the speech," he said. "It's just another example as far as we're concerned that when Hillary Clinton is threatened by a female, the first thing she does is try to destroy the person."
The similarities were initially highlighted by Twitter user Jarrett Hill.
The briefing was supposed to highlight Trump's moment in the spotlight. Manafort began his remarks by noting that Trump would be elected the nominee, defying all the skeptics who said he could never win the long primary process that included more than a dozen other candidates with long political resumes.
But the plagiarism issue had clearly sucked up the attention, frustrating Manafort.
"Any other questions on different topics?" he said, declaring that he would not answer follow-up questions on the speech.
"Any other topics?" he repeated, when a reporter asked another related question.
