<td colspan="3">
  <strong>Comments:</strong>
  <div class="comments">
         Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.
         Nam placerat luctus nunc sit amet varius. 
         Mauris hendrerit ante vel felis cursus a feugiat libero
         mattis. Integer pharetra vestibulum blandit.
   </div>
   <div class="line button-set">
           <button class="btn">Edit</button>
   </div>
</td>

var commentsCntrl=$("<TEXTAREA>");
        commentsCntrl.css("width","1150px");
        commentsCntrl.css("text-align","left");
        commentsCntrl.css("display","block");
        var comments=$(elm).find(".comments");
        var commentsTxt=comments.text();
        $.trim(commentsTxt);
        commentsCntrl.text(commentsTxt);
        comments.text("");
        comments.append(commentsCntrl); 

<div class="line button-set">
           <button class="btn">Edit</button>
</div>

commentsTxt=commentsTxt.replace('\s{2,}','');