Kamala Harris accused of plagiarism in 2009 book

The News

Vice President Kamala Harris is accused of plagiarizing some portions of her 2009 book “Smart on Crime,” which she co-authored fifteen years ago with Joan O’C. Hamilton.

Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist, detailed the allegations on Monday, citing an investigation by Stefan Weber, an Austrian described by some as “the plagiarism hunter.” Rufo’s report cites passages in which Harris’ book used portions of other works without quotation marks, including from a 2008 Associated Press article and a John Jay College of Criminal Justice press release. Semafor independently confirmed that Harris’ book includes portions of the Associated Press article and the press release.

While the excerpts are missing quotation marks, some of the examples do include footnote citations, though the New York Times notes that the AP case cites a separate report as its source. The passages in question concern background material, rather than anecdotes or arguments presented as Harris’ own.

In this article:

The News

The View From The Harris Campaign

The View From The Trump Campaign

Shelby’s view

Room for Disagreement

Notable

The View From The Harris Campaign

In a statement to Semafor, Harris’ campaign dismissed the allegations of plagiarism as efforts by “rightwing operatives” who “are getting desperate” amid the vice president’s “bipartisan coalition of support.”

“This is a book that’s been out for 15 years, and the Vice President clearly cited sources and statistics in footnotes and endnotes throughout,” campaign spokesman James Singer said.

The View From The Trump Campaign

The Trump campaign immediately highlighted Rufo’s report, with JD Vance tweeting: “Hi, I’m JD Vance. I wrote my own book, unlike Kamala Harris, who copied hers from Wikipedia,” and following up with a quip aimed at “corporate media ‘fact checkers.’”

Shelby’s view

Republican attacks against Harris include accusations that she isn’t authentic, doesn’t know what she stands for, and struggles to explain her positions in her own words. These allegations could provide another example for that argument.

Room for Disagreement

The New York Times reviewed the allegations and ran them by Jonathan Bailey, the publisher of Plagiarism Today, who sounded largely unimpressed. “This amount of plagiarism amounts to an error and not an intent to defraud,” he said.

Notable

The last year saw a rash of high-profile plagiarism accusations surfaced in the context of campus debates over Israel and Gaza.