After an opening convention night where Republican speakers accused Hillary Clinton of war crimes, most of the headlines the next morning focused on the possible petty theft of speech text by Melania Trump.
The GOP's national security night and nearly four hours of inflammatory speeches were largely overshadowed by accusations that the possible first lady recycled lines from Michelle Obama's Democratic convention speech in 2008.
Officials with Republican nominee Donald Trump's campaign tried to dismiss the issue Tuesday morning, saying that the controversy simply highlighted some common themes and phrases in a small part of the speech.
Campaign manager Paul Manafort blasted media questions about the alleged plagiarism as the work of Clinton's political operatives, and criticized reporters for hyping the story.
But the controversy did distract from the rest of Monday night's national security speakers, many of whom leveled harsh charges against the former secretary of state.
Former Defense Intelligence Agency director retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, a top national security adviser to Trump, blasted Clinton as a felon for her poor handling of classified emails while in the presidential Cabinet.
"We do not need a reckless president who believes she is above the law," he said, drawing cheers from the crowd. "If I did a 10th of what she did, I would be in jail. Crooked Hillary Clinton, leave this race now."
Other speakers accused her of being culpable in the deaths of Americans in the attacks on U.S. embassy facilities in Libya in 2012. House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mike McCaul, R-Texas, accused her of advocating policies to Obama that "paved the way for ISIS to rear its ugly head."
But instead of doubling down on those attacks Tuesday, campaign officials instead were scrambling to quiet the plagiarism questions.
Trump is expected to address the full convention Thursday evening, and reiterate many of the national security themes outlined in Monday's speeches. His wife is not expected to speak at the event again.
Leo Shane III covers Congress, Veterans Affairs and the White House for Military Times. He can be reached at lshane@militarytimes.com.
