‘Fraud’ Kamala Harris 'copied' content from Wikipedia, wires in her 2009 book; claims journalist
The 248-page book was written in days leading up to Harris' campaign for California attorney general.
US Vice President Kamala Harris in 2009 wrote a book titled “Smart on Crime: A Career Prosecutor's Plan to Make Us Safer.” Now, a renowned ‘plagiarism hunter’ from Austria has claimed the book, co-authored by Joan O'C Hamilton, had 27 "fragments of plagiarism". Dr Stefan Weber and his team in their 49-page report revealed that the Democratic presidential nominee even copy-pasted content from a Wikipedia article.
Investigative journalist Christopher Rufo also claimed Harris copied content from wires, press releases, and reports without proper attribution. Harris “plagiarised at least a dozen sections of her criminal-justice book, Smart on Crime,” Rufo said.
’12 sections were plagiarised’
The 248-page book was written in days leading up to Harris' campaign for California attorney general.
Now, as per allegations, Harris copied at least 12 sections of her book without giving attribution.
In one example, Harris reportedly copied a press release issued by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. In another case, Harris and her co-author allegedly copied a report from NBC News on high school graduation rates, again failing to give proper attribution.
“They not only lifted material from sources without proper attribution but in at least one case, relied on a low-quality source, which potentially undermined the accuracy of their conclusion,” claimed Rufo.
In one case, Harris allegedly copied content from a Wikipedia page, along with one factual error.
“There is nothing smart about plagiarism, which is the equivalent of an academic crime,” Rufo concluded.
Reactions
Ex-US president Donald Trump’s running mate JD Vance, from the Republican Party, was quick to mount an attack on Harris over allegations of plagiarism.
“Lmao Kamala didn’t even write her own book!”.
Donald Trump Jr. also commented on the issue, writing, “Yikes! More evidence that Kamala Harris is a fraud!!!”
Fox News Digital later verified the claims made by the plagiarism hunter and the journalist, confirming that Harris' book featured verbatim and near-verbatim reproductions from a 2008 NBC News report, a press release from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, a Wikipedia page and a report from the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), among others.
(With inputs from agencies)