Kamala Harris: “The full program” plagiarism allegations against Vice President

As a self-proclaimed “plagiarism hunter,” Stefan Weber has already uncovered a number of cheats. Now the Austrian is also making headlines in the USA: The scientist is accusing none other than the Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris of copying.

The non-fiction book “Smart on Crime” (published only in English) by the Democrat and former US district attorney from 2009 is said to be affected. He and his team have now discovered inaccuracies in 27 places, according to the communication scientist’s website.

Weber literally writes in his blog: “My credo has always been: If you think you have to say so much that it is worth a whole book, then please say it in your own words.” If not, then please quote correctly.” However, according to Weber, the US politician “plagiarized a section from a Wikipedia article and apparently also falsified a childhood story that she ‘borrowed’ from Martin Luther King.”

The New York Times stands in for Harris

In detail, Weber refers to the content of a 38-page report prepared by his team, in which “Smart on Crime” was analyzed in detail. For example, in some places I don’t make it clear to Harris that she quotes herself and interweaves passages from speeches she has given. 24 fragments are plagiarisms by other authors, three fragments are the aforementioned “self-plagiarisms” from a work written together with a co-author.

In recent years, Weber has already proven plagiarism in publications or doctoral theses by several well-known personalities. Many of those affected come from Austria, but Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has also pointed out inaccuracies in Weber’s case. Your book “Now. How we renew our country” was then no longer reprinted by the publisher. However, Weber’s work is not without controversy.

The allegations were generously received by Donald Trump’s campaign team and his supporters. On X, a number of users also document some of the allegedly “stolen” excerpts.

The author and political activist Christopher F. Rufo, a Trump supporter, was particularly active right from the start, commenting in several posts on X. But the “New York Times” has now also taken up the topic.

The newspaper interviewed a renowned US plagiarism researcher for its article. Jonathan Bailey, editor of the specialist blog “Plagiarism Today”, classifies the allegations against Harris as “not serious”. At most, “500 of a total of 65,000” words in the 200-page work are affected. “The number of failures suggested to me mistakes, not an intention to cheat,” the newspaper quoted him as saying. The New York Times itself also sees the allegations as not serious and their raising as a political campaign – an assessment that naturally enrages the Trump camp.

The “full program of plagiarism”?

Author Rufo, in turn, wrote a direct justification for the New York Times article at The newspaper claims that “none of the passages in question have adopted the ideas or thoughts of another author.” “That is absurd,” says Rufo.

And further: “Harris not only copied several paragraphs of other people’s work verbatim, but she often took those ideas directly and at face value.” In one case, she came to incorrect conclusions because she copied Wikipedia – that is, she stole a bad idea, copied the language verbatim and got the point.” This is probably “the full program of plagiarism,” said the Trump supporter.

For Kamala Harris, the debate comes so close to the election on November 5th that it is extremely inconvenient. After all, the Democratic presidential candidate has repeatedly pointed out that her political opponent Donald Trump spreads “fake news” and constantly tells untruths.

Trump’s running mate JD Vance also intervened in the debate. He scoffed at X: “Hi, I’m JD Vance: I wrote my own book, unlike Kamala Harris who copied her from Wikipedia.”

Vance’s biography “Hillbilly Elegy” about his difficult childhood in the Appalachians is an international bestseller and was also made into a film.