In the vein of 'Joe Biden is a lying liar who lies', Roger Severino, Vice President of the Heritage Foundation, took to Twitter to share a story of his days as an junior editor at the 'Harvard Journal on Legislation'.
My first assignment as a junior editor at the Harvard Journal on Legislation (1999-2000) was to cite check an article submitted by one Sen. Joseph R. Biden. I was shocked by the plagiarism I discovered. 🧵 https://t.co/0CSqJBZR7E
— Roger Severino (@RogerSeverino_) September 4, 2023
Cite checking involves formatting case citations under highly prescribed rules and searching Westlaw to make sure the cases haven’t been overruled or superseded. Because I was interested in the article’s topic (civil rights) I read a bunch of the cited cases all the way through.
— Roger Severino (@RogerSeverino_) September 4, 2023
That’s when I noticed that a certain turn of phrase in an opinion sounded oddly familiar even though it was my time reading it. So I turned back to Biden’s article, and there it was. He had lifted language straight out of a SCOTUS opinion, changed a couple words, and called…
— Roger Severino (@RogerSeverino_) September 4, 2023
I then read the piece through again and multiple other phrases sounded familiar. Turns out they too were plagiarized from opinions. I believe this merited rejecting the article outright for plagiarism so I emailed the lead editor and presented the indisputable proof. Instead of…
— Roger Severino (@RogerSeverino_) September 4, 2023
They “fixed” the plagiarism by adding proper attributions and acted like the whole incident never happened. But this was no innocent mistake, where Biden “forgot” a quote mark or two which would be bad enough.
— Roger Severino (@RogerSeverino_) September 4, 2023
Instead, he engaged in “mosaic plagiarism” which entails taking a quote and swapping some words with synonyms to make the plagiarism harder to detect. This indicates what’s known in law as “consciousness of guilt.”
— Roger Severino (@RogerSeverino_) September 4, 2023
Worse still, Biden was *already* known to have plagiarized before this article crossed my desk yet was brazen enough to try it again.
— Roger Severino (@RogerSeverino_) September 4, 2023
Here’s a link to the article from 2000, as published. Someone should definitely read through it and all the cited cases to see if there were any instances of mosaic plagiarism I may have missed. https://t.co/C4Ej12gbdw
— Roger Severino (@RogerSeverino_) September 4, 2023
Wow, that was a lot to take in. Long story short ... Biden is a plagiarist who takes the words of others and claims them as his own.
A good thread, Roger. But I doubt very much that Biden wrote the article, rather than having a staffer do it. He may not even have read it. Which does not of course relieve him of responsibility for what is published under his name.
— Matt Franck (@MatthewJFranck) September 4, 2023
Yes, likely he had lots of help. But for what it’s worth, Biden did not include any customary note of thanks for any staffers who may have assisted in the drafting and the third word of the piece is “I.” https://t.co/C4Ej12gbdw
— Roger Severino (@RogerSeverino_) September 4, 2023
If this were a one off thing you might say it was a careless staffer and move on. But Biden had already established a pattern of plagiarism. You’d think he would drill into any ghost writers the importance of avoiding the charge when it’s his name on the piece and no one else’s.
— Roger Severino (@RogerSeverino_) September 4, 2023
Exactly, This isn't a one off that could be written off as carelessness or not checking behind a staffer. Biden is just dishonest and maybe also sloppy. Whatever the case, he most definitely is dishonest.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member