(Headline USA) The publisher of Vice President Kamala Harris’s 2009 book on criminal justice reform instructed employees this week not to answer questions about whether the book had been plagiarized.
Conservative activist Chris Rufo dropped a bombshell report this week alleging Harris plagiarized multiple sections of the book she co-authored, Smart on Crime.
EXCLUSIVE: Kamala Harris plagiarized at least a dozen sections of her criminal-justice book, Smart on Crime, according to a new investigation. The current vice president even lifted material from Wikipedia.
We have the receipts. 🧵
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) October 14, 2024
A follow-up analysis by CNN confirmed that Harris and her co-author, Joan Hamilton, failed to properly attribute their content, with some of the passages having been cribbed directly from the dubiously crowd-sourced and notoriously biased Wikipedia.
A New York Times analysis similarly found that Harris’s book “appeared to have been taken partly from other published work without quotation marks.”
In a memo obtained by Rufo, Lauren Hoffman, Chronicle Books executive director of marketing and publicity, instructed employees to direct all inquiries about the plagiarism allegations to her, arguing the accusations were “very sensitive.”
“Please do not respond or comment on any inquiries regarding SMART ON CRIME, and please continue to forward them directly to me,” the email said.
BREAKING: Kamala Harris's publisher, Chronicle Books, is in damage control mode. 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. pic.twitter.com/seiF3bu0R2
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) October 14, 2024
It was clear that Chronicle Books was “in damage control mode,” Rufo noted in a post on X.
“They know Kamala lied. They know that we know Kamala lied,” he continued. “In America, plagiarism has become a moral pillar of the regime—and they will slander anyone who notices.”
Rufo went on to argue that Chronicle Books, as well as Harris, “should retract the plagiarized passages and issue a correction,” as the publisher would, presumably, with any other author under similar circumstances.
“There should be a single standard—and Kamala Harris is falling short,” said the Manhattan Institute senior fellow, who was instrumental in forcing the removal of disgraced ex- Harvard University President Claudine Gay under similar circumstances.
Harris’s campaign dismissed the plagiarism allegations, arguing Harris “clearly cited sources and statistics in footnotes and endnotes throughout” the book.
“Rightwing operatives are getting desperate as they see the bipartisan coalition of support Vice President Harris is building to win this election, as Trump retreats to a conservative echo chamber refusing to face questions about his lies,” campaign spokesperson James Singer claimed in a statement, without citing any specifics.
