RNC official accuses Clinton of plagiarism

The chief strategist of the Republican National Committee (RNC) accused Hillary Clinton of plagiarism in her speech accepting the Democratic presidential nomination.

#plagarism alert @hillaryclinton at @DemConvention “America is great bc America is good,” de Tocqueville “America is great bc she is good”

— Sean Spicer (@seanspicer) July 29, 2016

Spicer’s tweet references a portion of Clinton’s Thursday night address where she seemingly paraphrased Alexis de Tocqueville, the political scientist who wrote “Democracy in America.”

“But here’s the sad truth: There is no other Donald Trump — this is it,” Clinton said in Philadelphia. “And in the end, it comes down to what Donald Trump doesn’t get: that America is great — because America is good.

“So enough with the bigotry and the bombast. Donald Trump’s not offering real change. He’s offering empty promises.”

“America is great because she is good” is often quoted from de Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America.” According to an analysis from The Weekly Standard, however, the passage does not actually appear in de Tocqueville’s work.

Donald Trump Jr. on Thursday accused President Obama of copying him during a speech the night before.

Obama on late Wednesday used the phrase “that’s not the America I know” while addressing the Democratic National Convention after Donald Trump Jr. used it the week prior at the Republican convention.

The plagiarism fight began when Melania Trump, Donald Trump’s wife, was accused of borrowing heavily from a 2008 speech by first lady Michelle Obama during her address in Cleveland.