Donald Trump's campaign manager blames Hillary Clinton for Melania's plagiarism accusations

Donald Trump’s campaign manager has blamed Hillary Clinton for the backlash to Melania Trump’s convention speech, which had strong similarities with Michelle Obama’s convention address 8 years ago.

In interviews and at a press conference today, Paul Manafort, Donald Trump's campaign manager defended Melania Trump and accused Clinton of making it an issue. 

"There’s a political tint to this whole issue,"  Manafort said. "We’ve noted that the Clinton camp was the first to get it out there and trying to say that there was something untoward about the speech that Melania Trump gave. 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."

He also made the same argument while speaking to CNN. "This is once again an example of when a woman threatens Hillary Clinton, how she seeks out to demean her and take her down,"  he said, adding that the speech included common words and values and dismissed accusations of plagiarism as "just really absurd."

"We don’t believe there’s anything in that speech that doesn’t reflect her thinking. We’re comfortable that the words that she used are words that are personal to her"