Kamala Harris’s Plagiarism Problem

[Valin]

Christopher F. Rufo Substack

The vice president appears to have airlifted sections of her book, Smart on Crime.

Christopher F. Rufo

Oct 14, 2024

Kamala Harris has become famous, in part, for her unique rhetorical style. She switches freely between various accents and peppers her speeches with catchphrases: pondering falling “out of a coconut tree,” discussing “the significance of the passage of time,” and moving the nation toward “what can be, unburdened by what has been.”

To her supporters, the vice president’s rhetorical flourishes represent the values of compassion and optimism. To her detractors, her reliance on platitudes and tautologies demonstrates her unfitness for the presidency.

But, as we have discovered in this exclusive report, another element appears to exist within Kamala Harris’s rhetorical universe: plagiarism.

At the beginning of Harris’s political career, in the run-up to her campaign to serve as California’s attorney general, she and co-author Joan O’C Hamilton published a small volume, entitled Smart on Crime: A Career Prosecutor’s Plan to Make Us Safer. The book helped to establish her credibility on criminal-justice issues.

However, according to Stefan Weber, a famed Austrian “plagiarism hunter” who has taken down politicians in the German-speaking world, Harris’s book contains more than a dozen “vicious plagiarism fragments.” Some of the passages he highlighted appear to contain minor transgressions—reproducing small sections of text; insufficient paraphrasing—but others seem to reflect more serious infractions, similar in severity to those found in Harvard president Claudine Gay’s doctoral thesis. (Harris did not respond to a request for comment.)

Let’s consider a selection of these excerpts from Harris’s book, beginning with one in which Harris discusses high school graduation rates. Here, she lifted verbatim language from an uncited NBC News report, with the duplicated material marked in italics:

(Snip)

__________________________________________________________________

 

Oct. 15 2024

[Valin]

Harris book publisher appears to release internal memo mistakenly after plagiarism allegations
Emily Hallas
October 14, 2024

The journalist who accused Vice President Kamala Harris of plagiarizing a book she wrote in 2009 claimed her publisher is in crisis mode and attempting “damage control.” 

Christopher Rufo highlighted on Monday at least a dozen portions of Smart on Crime that appear to have shown significant similarities to Wikipedia entries and reports. Smart on Crime’s publishing company, Chronicle Books, “accidentally” revealed its strategy to respond to the debacle to Rufo, according to the journalist later on Monday evening. 

“Kamala Harris’s publisher, Chronicle Books, is in damage control mode,” Rufo wrote in a post to X. “The company accidentally sent my team an internal communication indicating that VP Lauren Hoffman is requiring that all inquiries about Harris’s plagiarism go through the higher-ups.” 

The journalist attached a screenshot to his post that appeared to show top Chronicle executives advising employees about what to say to people inquiring about the Smart on Crime plagiarism accusations. 

“Hey Sarah, Per Lauren Hoffman (VP, Executive Director, marketing and publicity) please do not respond or comment on any inquiries regarding SMART ON CRIME, and please continue to forward them directly to me,” the email shared by Rufo begins.

(Snip)

[SDwaters]

1 hour ago, Valin said:

The vice president appears to have airlifted sections of her book, Smart on Crime.

It worked for Joe, why not her?

[Valin]

1 hour ago, SDwaters said:

It worked for Joe, why not her?

If memory serves He had to drop out. Of course, That Was Then, This Is Now.

[Valin]

The Narrative

Conservative Activist Seizes on Passages From Harris Book

A report by Christopher Rufo says the Democratic presidential nominee copied five short passages for her 2009 book on crime. A plagiarism expert said the lapses were not serious.

Stephanie SaulVimal Patel and Dylan Freedman
Published Oct. 14, 2024Updated Oct. 15, 2024, 10:27 a.m. ET

(Snip)

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. Instead, the sentences copy descriptions of programs or statistical information that appear elsewhere.

The five passages that Mr. Rufo cited appeared to have been taken partly from other published work without quotation marks.

Jonathan Bailey, a plagiarism consultant in New Orleans and the publisher of Plagiarism Today, said on Monday that his initial reaction to Mr. Rufo’s claims was that the errors were not serious, given the size of the document.

“This amount of plagiarism amounts to an error and not an intent to defraud,” he said, adding that Mr. Rufo had taken relatively minor citation mistakes in a large amount of text and tried to “make a big deal of it.”

(Snip)

 

[Valin]

5 hours ago, Valin said:

The Narrative

Conservative Activist Seizes on Passages From Harris Book

 

 

Media ‘Pounce’ To Cover Up Kamala Harris’ Plagiarism Scandal
Shawn Fleetwood
October 15, 2024

Legacy media are working overtime to delegitimize a new report indicating Kamala Harris allegedly plagiarized parts of a book she co-authored.

The cover-up began on Monday shortly after the Manhattan Institute’s Christopher Rufo reported findings by Austrian “plagiarism hunter” Stefan Weber, who purportedly discovered that a 2009 book co-authored by Harris and Joan O’C. Hamilton contains passages seemingly lifted from various other published works and websites. The book is titled Smart on Crime: A Career Prosecutor’s Plan to Make Us Safer.

Rufo noted how “ome of the passages [Weber] highlighted appear to contain minor transgressions — reproducing small sections of text; insufficient paraphrasing — but others seem to reflect more serious infractions, similar in severity to those found in Harvard president Claudine Gay’s doctoral thesis.” The report cited numerous examples in which Harris and her co-author seemingly lifted text from sources such as an NBC News article, a John Jay College of Criminal Justice press release, and a Wikipedia article.

(Snip)