New: Chris Rufo Drops 'Receipts' on Kamala's Alleged 'Plagiarism Problem,' and JD Vance Has Thoughts

In 1987, then-Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) infamously bowed out of the 1988 Democrat presidential primary race over a plagiarism scandal that rocked his campaign.

And now, some 37 years later, his vice president - Democrat presidential nominee Kamala Harris, allegedly has a plagiarism scandal of her own.

According to a new report from conservative commentator and leading Critical Race Theory critic Christopher Rufo, Harris "plagiarized at least a dozen sections of her criminal-justice book, Smart on Crime." In a Twitter/X thread, Rufo has dropped what he calls "the receipts":

EXCLUSIVE: Kamala Harris plagiarized at least a dozen sections of her criminal-justice book, Smart on Crime, according to a new investigation. The current vice president even lifted material from Wikipedia.

We have the receipts. 🧵
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) October 14, 2024

The investigation was conducted by Dr. Stefan Weber, a famed Austrian "plagiarism hunter" who has taken down politicians in the German-speaking world. We independently confirmed multiple violations, which are comparable in severity to the plagiarism found in former Harvard… pic.twitter.com/P9DTpZS4kV
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) October 14, 2024

We can begin with a passage in which Harris discusses high school graduation rates. Here, she lifted verbatim language from an uncited AP/NBC News report: pic.twitter.com/pZv5mD3m5t
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) October 14, 2024

In another section of the book, Harris, without proper attribution, reproduced extensive sections from a John Jay College of Criminal Justice press release. She and her co-author passed off the language as their own, copying multiple paragraphs virtually verbatim. Here is the… pic.twitter.com/9FpsxQE8Sz
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) October 14, 2024

In a section about a New York court program, Harris stole long passages directly from Wikipedia—long considered an unreliable source. She not only assumes the online encyclopedia's accuracy, but copies its language nearly verbatim, without citing the source. Here is Harris's… pic.twitter.com/qrwHE8AAgk
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) October 14, 2024

Harris also copied language from a Bureau of Justice Assistance report report, which was linked in the the Wikipedia entry. Here is the passage in Harris's book, with duplicated material in the other column: pic.twitter.com/aU7CbP0ODm
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) October 14, 2024

Finally, when attempting to write a description of a nonprofit group, Harris simply lifted promotional language from an Urban Institute report, and failed to cite her source: pic.twitter.com/WpcC0SkpT5
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) October 14, 2024

As RedState readers will recall, Rufo revealed in December 2023 that then-Harvard president Claudine Gay "plagiarized multiple sections of her Ph.D. thesis." Gay resigned just a few weeks later.

Relatedly, Harris has previously been accused of plagiarizing Martin Luther King Jr.

GOP vice presidential nominee JD Vance has already weighed in on Rufo's report on Harris:

Cue the corporate media "fact checkers":

"Vance's tweet is missing important context. Kamala Harris only copied some of her book from Wikipedia."
— JD Vance (@JDVance) October 14, 2024

Will the MSM pick up on this story and do some digging of their own? I'm not optimistic:

Gotta say this is the least surprising thing I’ve read in quite some time.

A bit ironic that plagiarism is what doomed Biden’s first run for President back in 1988.

Then again, the media will completely ignore this because of who is breaking the story. And that’s just a whole… https://t.co/7FlyfNyerv
— Joe Concha (@JoeConchaTV) October 14, 2024

This is a developing story. As always, stay tuned.