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- First lady Melania Trump lashed out at her critics on Monday in a typo-ridden statement, her first public remarks since last Wednesday’s violent siege of the Capitol building by her husband’s loyalists.
- Trump expressed sympathy for the five people who died during or from injuries sustained amid last Wednesday’s riot and named each of the individuals, including the rioters who attempted to overthrow the government.
- She misspelled the name of one rioter killed by Capitol Police and lifted a line from her speech last August at the Republican National Convention.
- This comes after two of the first lady’s top aides resigned last Wednesday following the attempted coup.
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First lady Melania Trump lashed out at her critics on Monday in a typo-ridden statement, her first public remarks since last Wednesday’s violent siege of the Capitol building by her husband’s loyalists.
Trump expressed sympathy for the five people who died during or from injuries sustained amid last Wednesday’s riot, including the rioters, and named each of the individuals. She misspelled the name of 35-year-old Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt, who was shot and killed by Capitol Police as she and others attempted to break through a door inside the Capitol building.
The first lady vaguely condemned the attempted coup, saying she was “disappointed and disheartened with what happened last week.” She had much harsher words for those she accused of spreading “salacious gossip” about her, apparently referring to reports about her response to the events. CNN first reported on Friday that the first lady was overseeing a photo shoot of decorative objects at the White House as deadly chaos consumed Washington last Wednesday following the president’s speech to his gathered supporters.
“I find it shameful that surrounding these tragic events there has been salacious gossip, unwarranted personal attacks, and false misleading accusations on me – from people who are looking to be relevant and have an agenda,” she said in the statement. “This time is solely about healing our country and its citizens. It should not be used for personal gain.”
Two of the first lady’s top aides, chief of staff Stephanie Grisham and White House social secretary Anna Cristina Niceta, resigned last Wednesday evening in part in response to the first lady’s refusal to respond to the riots, CNN reported. Grisham was one of the Trump family’s longest-serving loyalists and most recently served as a communications director and speechwriter for the first lady.
Notably, Trump copied one line in her Monday statement word for word from the speech she gave at the Republican National Convention last August, CNN's Kate Bennett pointed out. The statement also included several grammatical errors, including misplaced apostrophes.
The first lady has a history with plagiarism: she lifted several sections from former first lady Michelle Obama's 2008 Democratic National Convention speech for her 2016 RNC speech. She claimed that she had written the high-profile speech "with as little help as possible," but a Trump campaign speechwriter later took the blame for the plagiarism.
—Kate Bennett (@KateBennett_DC) January 11, 2021
Prior to the riots, the first lady expressed support for her husband's false claims about the 2020 election results and his lies about widespread voter fraud. The day after the major news outlets called the presidential election for President-elect Joe Biden, she tweeted, "The American people deserve fair elections. Every legal - not illegal - vote should be counted. We must protect our democracy with complete transparency."