As Twitchy reported earlier, Christopher Rufo said that both he and the famed Austrian "plagiarism hunter" Dr. Stefan Weber had found multiple instances of plagiarism in Kamala Harris' book, "Smart on Crime." Rufo says Harris (or her ghostwriter) lifted passages from the AP, NBC News, the Urban Institute, and even Wikipedia.
We would have left it at that, but the New York Times reported that Rufo had "seized" on passages from Harris' book (rather than "pounced" on them).
Not only did a conservative "seize" on the passages — the Times found a plagiarism expert who said, "the lapses were not serious." So they're admitting there were lapses, but they found an expert to write them off.
The New York Times is out with some absolutely crazy goalpost shifting on Kamala’s plagiarism.
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 14, 2024
They say it’s akshully not a big deal because she lifted passages from other works without quotation marks instead of straight up lifting them from another writer. https://t.co/IbU9VQxtIH pic.twitter.com/cwu7idOMFM
"In a review of the book, The New York Times found that none of the passages in question took the ideas or thoughts of another writer, which is considered the most serious form of plagiarism."
So they're admitting that Harris plagiarized passages of her book, but it was a less serious form of plagiarism.
This is embarrassing. The New York Times should have just ignored the story.
Seizes! Pounces!
— Jank (@Tommyjank1) October 14, 2024
"Republicans pounce"
— Todd Andrews (@ToddAndrews44) October 14, 2024
Rufo seizes…
— Don Carter (@d1carter) October 14, 2024
An expert……
— Don Carter (@d1carter) October 14, 2024
Rufo presented the highlighted passages from Harris' book right next to the sources from which she lifted them. But the Times found an expert who says it's no big deal.
NYT: Kamala Harris is too incompetent even to plagiarize correctly.
— Unauthorized Narrative (@mgEyesOpen) October 14, 2024
People get kicked out of college for plagiarizing. Or used to 👀
— Lin Costco (@llandyp52) October 14, 2024
What exactly are the different levels of plagiarism that they reference? Call me an idealist, but I thought it was considered wrong under any circumstances.
— AdamInHTown (@AdamInHTown) October 14, 2024
They can dress it up all they want. It’s still cheating.
— Shelly (@LeafyMaple) October 14, 2024
Mostly peaceful plagiarism.
— Beanie (@Beanie0597) October 14, 2024
holy shit. They're so devoted to trying to spin everything she does that they're willing to basically portray themselves as being too stupid to know what plagiarism is.
— John (@JohnCNomad) October 14, 2024
I’m gonna need rain boots for how thick the bullshit is about to get
— Dr. Sean Murphy (@SeanMurphy29) October 14, 2024
Their plagiarism expert is Claudine Gay
— ₿tcmaxer (@btcmaxer) October 14, 2024
Turns out she didn’t plagiarize; her ghostwriter did!
— Kory Jaiden (@JaidenKory) October 14, 2024
That looks like the defense the Harris camp is going with. She co-wrote the book. It was the ghostwriter who plagiarized all of the sources.
The Times didn't waste any time finding their own plagiarism expert to explain how this was a less serious form of plagiarism.
At some point, they’re not going to be able to hold the weight of her failures pic.twitter.com/yb4P6Svrou
— Just a dude (@Just_A_Dude_AZ) October 14, 2024
***
Join the conversation as a VIP Member