Former Vice President Joe Biden is facing backlash after his 2020 presidential campaign was busted plagiarizing its wide-ranging climate and energy platform.
Biden’s climate plan contains several passages that appear to have been copied and pasted from various advocacy organizations, using nearly identical language from other sources without attribution.
“Biden’s goal is to make CCUS a widely available, cost-effective, and rapidly scalable solution to reduce carbon emissions to meet mid-century climate goals,” Biden’s climate plan states.
The Carbon Capture Coalition uses the same exact language on its website, stating, “Its goal is to make carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS) a widely available, cost-effective, and rapidly scalable solution to reduce carbon emissions to meet mid-century climate goals.”
The 2020 Democratic presidential frontrunner’s campaign lifted lines from at least five other outside sources verbatim without proper credit.
The Biden campaign was forced to update its climate platform amid complaints but maintains the clear instances of plagiarism were mistakes.
“Several citations, some from sources cited in other parts of the plan, were inadvertently left out of the final version of the 22-page document,” the campaign told Fox News. “As soon as we were made aware of it, we updated to include the proper citations.”
President Trump blasted Biden amid the plagiarism allegations.
“Plagiarism charge against Sleepy Joe Biden on his ridiculous Climate Change Plan is a big problem, but the Corrupt Media will save him,” Trump tweeted from Europe.
Plagiarism charge against Sleepy Joe Biden on his ridiculous Climate Change Plan is a big problem, but the Corrupt Media will save him. His other problem is that he is drawing flies, not people, to his Rallies. Nobody is showing up, I mean nobody. You can’t win without people!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 5, 2019
The Republican National Committee warns Biden is a serial plagiarist.
“Joe Biden has been plagiarizing for longer than I’ve been alive,” RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said Wednesday on Fox News.
“This is not Joe Biden’s first brush with plagiarism,” the RNC’s Steve Guest tweeted. “During his 1988 campaign, Biden plagiarized campaign speeches from British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock as well as Robert Kennedy. During law school, Biden plagiarized, too.”
This is not Joe Biden’s first brush with plagiarism.
During his 1988 campaign, Biden plagiarized campaign speeches from British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock as well as Robert Kennedy.
During law school, Biden plagiarized too. https://t.co/rFneLwO3CR
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) June 4, 2019
Biden’s first campaign for president in 1988 was derailed after he was caught plagiarizing on multiple occasions.
In 1987, he lied in about marching in the civil rights movement, claiming he “marched with tens of thousands of others to change attitudes.”
The then-44-year old senator from Delaware reiterated his plight for civil rights on the campaign trail.
Yet, as the New York Times notes, he never actually marched during the civil rights movement and his aides cringed each time he lied about marching.
“More than once, advisers had gently reminded Mr. Biden of the problem with this formulation: He had not actually marched during the civil rights movement,” the Times’ Flegenheimer wrote. “And more than once, Mr. Biden assured them he understood – and kept telling the story anyway.”
Biden was ultimately accused of plagiarizing his campaign speeches, fabricating his youth activism and inflating his academic record.
He then held a press conference, in which he proclaimed, “I’ve done some dumb things. And I’ll do dumb things again,” and dropped out of the race.
Biden has also come under fire for habitually touching women and children in public without their consent.
His campaign released a video in April in which he explains that he would be much more mindful of his behavior in the future.
Social norms are changing. I understand that, and I’ve heard what these women are saying. Politics to me has always been about making connections, but I will be more mindful about respecting personal space in the future. That’s my responsibility and I will meet it. pic.twitter.com/Ya2mf5ODts
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) April 3, 2019
Despite his promise to control his personal interactions, he was criticized last week after he cozied up to a 10-year old girl during a town hall in Houston, Texas.
The girl told him that she wanted to be a journalist, prompting him to grab her shoulders, lean over and tell her, “I’ll bet you’re as bright as you are good looking.”
Why can’t Creepy Joe Biden stop touching other people’s children? https://t.co/ZruK3hukjI
— J Owen Shroyer (@allidoisowen) May 28, 2019
Biden remains the clear front-runner in the Democratic presidential nomination race, but his lead is slipping.
According to the latest 2020 poll from CNN, he leads the field at 32 percent but dropped seven points from where he was in April’s CNN poll when he first jumped in the race.
The thing about the new CNN poll: it’s true Biden is still ahead by a lot, but look at the trend. His lead over Sanders is 10 points smaller than in late April, when he entered the race. (Then it was +24; now it’s +14.) https://t.co/2Hcyq29DEN pic.twitter.com/GPWjn2rAEg
— Gabriel Debenedetti (@gdebenedetti) June 4, 2019
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