Crafty Politician Channels Frank Underwood, Goes Viral

He might not have the speech-writing skills of Frank Underwood, but it appears he can spin a story just as well: Mexican politician Miguel Angel Covarrubias Cervantes shared a Facebook video Tuesday in which he delivers a speech that will sound awfully familiar to any fan of House of Cards (so long as you know Spanish). That's because the speech is almost a word-for-word match to a monologue given by Kevin Spacey's House of Cards character Frank Underwood, per Quartz. "They say that we have the government that we deserve, and I think that Mexico deserves something bigger," Covarrubias begins as the House of Cards theme song plays. People were quick to accuse Covarrubias, 27, of plagiarism, but Netflix responded in a different way.

"To the people of Mexico, it's not a competition. You have no idea where people take their inspiration from," Michael Kelly, acting as his sinister House of Cards character Doug Stamper, said in a video shared by Netflix on Twitter Tuesday. Covarrubias then responded with a second video in the style of the first, claiming his speech wasn't "competition or a mistake" but an attempt to go viral, per the BBC. "Copying was never the objective. The world's attention, yes," he says. As the former mayor of a small Mexican town, it isn't exactly clear what Covarrubias plans to do from his newfound soapbox. However, Fox News reports he intends to run for mayor again next year, apparently using the slogan, "Let's do something great." (More Mexico stories.)