When Big Apologies Go Wrong

​I just read an analysis of Meredith McIver's apology as the speechwriter who plagiarized Michelle Obama's speech for Melania Trump.  The analyst gave it high marks as an apology.  And assuming what she's saying is true -- an assumption I'm not willing to make, given the avalanche of lies that have come from the Trump campaign for the past year, but I'm willing to accept it for the sake of argument -- the apology is indeed a very good one. 

But -- there's a much bigger problem which the apology doesn't address, nor does the analysis.  In Ms. McIver's apology, she writes about Mrs. Trump --?

A person she has always liked is Michelle Obama. Over the phone, she read me some passages from Mrs. Obama’s speech as examples. I wrote them down and later included some of the phrasing in the draft that ultimately became the final speech. I did not check Mrs. Obama’s speeches This was my mistake and I feel terrible for the chaos I have caused Melania and the Trumps, as well as to Mrs. Obama.

​
Here's the big problem.

In her apology, Meredith McIver takes responsibility for not checking Michelle Obama's speeches and not changing the text.  Fine.  Except...from her own words, she says she got the text in the first place from...Melania Trump!  So, Melania Trump apparently knew exactly the passages she gave the speechwriter.  And knew them verbatim.  And knew them well because she specifically liked them.

So, when they appeared in the speech -- word for word, exactly as she gave them to the speechwriter, and without attribution -- why on earth did Mrs. Trump not stop and stay, "Wait!!  These aren't my words, these aren't my experiences, this is Michelle Obama's quotes that I gave you!!"????

As far as I can tell -- from what the speechwriter herself says -- this is absolute, incontrovertible evidence that Melania Trump knew exactly what she was doing, and that she herself plagiarized Michelle Obama.  And laying it at the feet of the speechwriter to fall on the sword hold no water.

Unless the story isn't true.  In which case, we can assume it's worse.

Including the part where Melania Trump told Matt Lauer on camera that she wrote the speech herself.  Which just as little help as possible from others...