David Duke blames Melania's plagiarism on 'Jewish media insiders'

David Duke, 27-year-old Ku Klux Klan leader, poses in his Klan robes in front of the House of Parliament in London in March of 1978.

(Image credit: AP Photo)

last updated 20 July 2016

There have been a handful of responses from Donald Trump's supporters to explain away Melania Trump's evident plagiarism of Michelle Obama's 2008 Democratic convention speech, but former KKK leader David Duke's explanation may take the cake. Unlike Chris Christie, he doesn't deny that Melania took "five or six common quotes out of Michele Obama's Demo convention speech just a few years before," but he squarely blames her speechwriters. Or, as he put it on his website, a "Jewish neocon speechwriter" at "a vicious corrupt lying Zio Media." Duke wrote:

This is a con job, sabotage, political character assassination plan from the get go! Also, it seems as though the operative set up Melania, by leaking it to other Jewish media insiders who repeatedly asked her about the speech before she gave it prodding her to suggest that she came up with most of it but was helped a little by the speechwriter. I would bet a gefilte fish that this was sabotage. I would also bet a bagel it was orchestrated by an Israel Firster who wanted to damage the American Firster. [DavidDuke.com]

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.

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