Politicians Who Got Caught Red-Handed Plagiarizing

No matter the country, many politicians are known for their grimey and deceitful nature, saying whatever they need to in order to secure those much needed votes. Their tendency for sneakiness also extends into speeches, papers, and even books where they’ve straight up just copy and pasted entire sentences and passages as their own original thoughts. As expected, people were far from impressed, especially by these five politicians below who were caught in the act of plagiarizing.\r \r 1. Donald Trump\r \r “MANY Americans do not appreciate the patriotism exhibited by our brothers and sisters in the Territories of American Samoa, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.” This was a quote by Ben Carson which was copied and pasted by Donald Trump, save for a few alterations here and there. Carson himself didn’t mind at all, but naturally, the former president was put on blast, especially since he already rubbed many people the wrong way.\r \r 2. Barack Obama\r \r In 2008, in the midst of the Wisconsin primary election, Barack Obama was accused by Hillary Clinton’s campaign of plagiarism, which was quite hypocritical to say the least. Apparently he included quotes not from Democratic Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, but also Martin Luther King, and John F. Kennedy. Patrick, a good friend of Obama, defended him, but admitted that he should have given credit. One of the quotes which was copied word-for-word read “I am not asking anybody to take a chance on me. I am asking you to take a chance on your own aspirations.”\r \r 3. Hillary Clinton\r \r Turns out that Hillary Clinton has plenty of skeletons in her closet as it relates to plagiarism. Not only did she steal talking points from Bernie Sanders, but also mere jokes from Ronald Reagan as well. Although she attempted to reword the quotes, it was still obvious to anyone who was familiar with the original sources. Reagan: “America is great because she is good.” Clinton “America is great — because America is good.” She even mimicked Sanders’ talking points about elitism saying “This country belongs to all of us, not just those at the top.”\r \r 4. Joe Biden\r \r Lately, Joe Biden has become the butt of jokes for his constant blunders while reading out pre-recorded speeches. But his plagiarizing of a 1987 speech by British Labour Party’s Leader, Neil Kinnock can hardly be regarded as an innocent slip of the tongue. Save for the addition of a few words, the nature of Biden’s speech is nearly identical to Kinnock’s. It’s hard to dismiss the similarity between the two; Kinnock pondering aloud why both he and his wife were the first in their family to attend university, and Biden doing the same. The latter even pointed towards Jill in the crowd, much like Kinnock did to his wife when he mentioned her.\r \r 5. Vladimir Putin\r \r Out of everyone on this list, Vladimir Putin takes the cakes. While the others only copied a few quotes here and there, the Russian president plagiarized a full 16 out of 20 pages of his economic dissertation during his university years in the mid-90s. The texts, which were taken from two University of Pittsburgh academics, can be verified by anyone, yet Putin denied it all, with one spokesperson labeling the claims as “slanderous.” Though not plagiarized, many people have pointed out how similar the tone and messages of his speeches are to another famous politician, Hitler.