Harris 2007 Congressional Testimony About Student Loan Program Stirs Debate
Kamala Harris’ political career has hit a new snag just as Election Day looms, with fresh allegations of plagiarism surfacing from her past testimony and publications.
On April 24, 2007, Harris, then the district attorney of San Francisco, testified before Congress in support of the John R. Justice Prosecutors and Defenders Incentive Act, a bill designed to attract legal talent to public service by offering student loan repayment. Harris’ testimony, meant to bolster her credentials as a pragmatic leader concerned with public service, turns out to have been largely copied from another district attorney, Paul Logli of Illinois, who testified in support of the same bill two months earlier.
The similarities between their statements are unmistakable. Both testimonies reference the same surveys, make the same arguments in the same order, and even contain identical typos. While it’s not unusual for public officials to recycle talking points, the extent of the duplication—nearly 80% of Harris’ testimony—suggests more than mere carelessness.
And this isn’t the first time Harris has been accused of borrowing others’ work. In her role as California attorney general, Harris was found to have copied significant portions of reports from other sources, and in one instance, even lifted a fictionalized story about human trafficking from a nonprofit’s website, tweaking it to suggest that the incident occurred in her jurisdiction.
Word for word…. pic.twitter.com/zFSCObSyku
— Eliana Johnson (@elianayjohnson) October 22, 2024
For a candidate whose campaign is built on a platform of honesty and integrity, these allegations could be especially damaging. Harris has positioned herself as a champion of justice and a leader with the experience to handle complex legal and policy matters. But the revelation that much of her testimony and written work is recycled, and sometimes inaccurately so, challenges that image.
The timing couldn’t be worse. With only weeks until the election, and as polls tighten, the pattern of plagiarism could become a potent symbol of Harris’ perceived lack of originality and authenticity.
Even more damaging is the fact that Harris’ repeated plagiarism has come at times when she’s been trying to tout her own accomplishments and ideas. In 2012, Harris included a fictionalized human trafficking vignette in a report on California’s trafficking efforts, presenting it as a real case.
She changed the location of the story to San Francisco, taking credit for a rescue that never happened in her state. In another instance, she copied large portions of a 2010 report on organized crime from her predecessor, Bill Lockyer.
These aren’t isolated incidents. Earlier this year, Harris faced accusations of copying Donald Trump’s campaign platform, including Trump’s proposal to eliminate taxes on tips, which Harris echoed two months later. And in August, she proposed increasing the Child Tax Credit days after J.D. Vance made a similar proposal, prompting Vance to joke that it was only a matter of time before Harris adopted Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.
The pattern paints a picture of a politician who struggles to articulate her own vision, relying instead on the ideas and work of others. For voters, the question becomes: Who exactly is Kamala Harris? Is she the progressive trailblazer she claims to be, or a candidate who can’t seem to find her own voice in an increasingly competitive race?