The 2016 presidential election has provided the American people with a laundry list of controversial moments. While Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have dominated the headlines, they haven't been the only ones to make the front page.
Mrs. Trump, again
During the Republican National Convention this past July, Melania Trump addressed a packed area in Cleveland, Ohio and did her best to make the case for her husband for president. The speech initially received praise, but was quickly criticized after it was revealed that it had been plagiarized from a speech given by First Lady Michelle Obama during the Democratic National Convention in 2008.
Since that time, Melania has kept her distance from the media, with a rare exception while speaking to CNN's Anderson Cooper following the release of the now infamous Access Hollywood audio tape. Melania returned to the public eye on Thursday, this time giving a speech about cyber-bullying, and taking a stand against threats made on the internet. After the initial criticism came in pointing out the irony considering her husband's history of alleged bullying, the backlash was starting, as reported by Mediaite on November 3.
Apparently, Melania Trump Plagiarized Again…This Time Copying Marla Maples Of All People https://t.co/5FcvV3lhJJ pic.twitter.com/x2csycibmn
— Mediaite (@Mediaite) November 3, 2016
During her speech, Melania stated, "If you could dream it, you could become it." That line was put into the Google search engine by Yair Rosenberh, a senior writer for Tablet Magazine, and the results were apparent.
Melania lifted that line word for word from a 2011 interview with Trump's ex-wife Marla Maples.
Melania just plagiarized Trump's second wife Marla Maples. Here's the only Google results for "if you could dream it, you could become it": pic.twitter.com/ALeHuSZqEm
— (((Yair Rosenberg))) (@Yair_Rosenberg) November 3, 2016
Further investigation resulted in Melania's speech and Maple's interview being an exact match.
While the latest speech isn't as much of ripoff as what was delivered at the GOP convention, it was enough to send Twitter and social media into a frenzy as users were quick to troll the wife of the former host of "The Apprentice."
Campaign trouble
Since the release of the hot mic audio tape, Trump has been forced to deal with a dozen allegations of sexual assault, as various women have come forward to tell their story.
In addition, Trump is just over a month away from facing a legal battle in court on charges that he allegedly raped a women at the time she was only 13-years-old. The woman, known as "Jane Doe" in the lawsuit, was going to address the public during a press conference on Wednesday, but was forced to cancel due to death threats.
Moving forward
With scandals impacting both candidates, the race is starting to tighten with less than a week remaining until Election Day. Despite this, Real Clear Politics shows Clinton with a slight lead on a national level and in key swing states, with the former Secretary of State having a comfortable advantage in the current electoral college projections.