Can you spell plagiarist?

Donald Trump has been called many things during his bid for the Republican presidential nomination. Add “possible plagiarist” to that list.

The Daily Caller reports that an op-ed published by Guam’s Pacific Daily News last week under the GOP frontrunner’s byline bears striking similarities to a piece written by Dr. Ben Carson that ran in Marianas Variety, a Northern Mariana Islands newspaper, last month.

From Carson’s Feb. 26 column, “Restoring equality and fairness to our fellow Americans in the territories and commonwealths”:


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.

From Trump’s March 9 op-ed, “I won’t ignore territories”:


Throughout the history of our nation, the patriotism exhibited by our brothers and sisters in the Territories of American Samoa, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Commonwealths of Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands has often gone unacknowledged.

Carson:


I am saddened to hear that every day, more and more of you in the territories and commonwealths are leaving your families and homes because the healthcare and educational systems are inadequate.

Trump:


I am saddened to hear that, every day, more and more citizens in the territories and commonwealths are leaving their families and homes because the health care and educational systems are inadequate.

Carson’s op-ed included a bulleted list of initiatives that the retired neurosurgeon vowed to undertake as president:


• I will appoint a Territory and Commonwealth Advisory Committee or TCAC consisting of representatives from American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico;
• The TCAC will be integrated into my presidential transition team, and be tasked with performing a holistic review of all federal regulations affecting the territories and commonwealths;
• Once sworn into office, I will appoint a special assistant to the president responsible for day-to-day interaction with the territories and commonwealths. This position would be the direct connection for the Office of Insular Affairs and the citizens of the territories and commonwealths.

Trump’s op-ed also included initiatives that appeared to be copied from Carson nearly word for word, minus the bullets:


I will appoint a Territory and Commonwealth Advisory Committee, or TCAC, consisting of representatives from American Samoa, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
The TCAC will be integrated into my presidential transition team, and be tasked with performing a holistic review of all federal regulations affecting the Territories and Commonwealths.
Once sworn into office, I will appoint a special assistant to the president responsible for day-to-day interaction with the territories and commonwealths. This position would be the direct connection for the Office of Insular Affairs and the citizens of the territories and commonwealths.

You don't think Carson wanted Trump to include these planks into his platform before he endorsed him, do you?????

Ray

Yes it is spelled "Joseph Biden".

Carson and some of his former staff are working for Trump. I'd guess The Donald asked them for policy ideas, likes the ideas and they worked together to update it. That's collaboration, not plagiarism. If he just copied it and made it his with out consulting Carson, then that's a different story.

watch out for the ice. It gets pretty thin way over there on the left side.

Except this was before Carson endorsed him.

Except this was before Carson endorsed him.

"Carson — who dropped his GOP bid earlier this month and endorsed Trump last week — brushed off the plagiarism accusation, suggesting that Trump’s op-ed may have been written by one of his former staffers.

“I would say that many of the people that worked for me previously are now working for Donald Trump, so that doesn’t surprise me at all,” Carson told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Wednesday.

So maybe neither Trump nor Carson personally wrote this piece. Of course both Obama and Biden were accused of plagiarism back when they were candidates. How'd that work out?
.

What was Obama accused of plagiarizing? I don't recall that.

He had a stump speech that was virtually word for word with one of his Governor friends. I don't really think it's that big of a deal...but of course Hillary's campaign was all over it.

Stealing or Borrowing?

He was also accused of copying, of all people, GW Bush in one of his State of the Union addresses.

Bush speechwriter accuses President Obama of plagiarism