Back in 2010, President Obama said to a crowd in Cleveland, Ohio: "That is not the America I know." And while Obama may have said it first, Donald Trump Jr. is convinced he's the one that actually came up with the line after it appeared in both men's speeches at their respective party conventions this month. On Thursday, the day after Obama delivered his speech to the Democratic National Convention, Donald Jr. leveled an accusation of plagiarism against Obama for using the phrase, which he'd used last week in his address to the Republican National Convention.
In fact, Donald Jr. suggested everyone should be just as angry about this incidence of plagiarism as they were last week about Melania Trump's lifting of several lines, nearly verbatim, from Michelle Obama's 2008 convention speech:
But in the instance of the president's shared phrase with Donald Jr., not only was the context radically different, but also it was Obama who'd uttered that phrase first. Aside from that 2010 mention in Cleveland, NBC News reported Obama used the line in Michigan in 2012 and, most recently, at the memorial service for Dallas police officers earlier this month.
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And before Obama even said those fateful words, President George W. Bush did. Way back in 2001, in the days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Bush used the phrase while discussing prejudice against Muslims. "That's not the America I know," Bush lamented — nearly 15 years before Donald Jr., apparently, came up with his signature saying.
Update 4:30 p.m.: Donald Trump Jr. now claims he was joking about being plagiarized by President Obama.
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