Ben Carson on accusation Trump plagiarized his op-ed: ‘It doesn’t bother me at all’
Trump receives Carson’s endorsement at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla., last week. (Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
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.
A spokeswoman for the Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
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.
Carson speaks with Trump after a news conference at Mar-a-Lago Club last week. (Photo: Lynne Sladky/AP)
“So, in other words, it could be a direct copy, but it wouldn’t be plagiarism because it could be somebody who actually wrote the first one writing the second one?” Burnett asked.
“Let me put it this way,” Carson said. “It doesn’t bother me at all.”
It would seem when it comes to Trump, not much does.
In an interview with Yahoo News’ Bianna Golodryga on Wednesday, the retired neurosurgeon was asked how he could endorse someone who once compared him to a child molester.
“You know, I understand politics and particularly the politics of personal destruction,” Carson said. “And you have to admit that to some degree, it did work. You know, a lot of people believed him.”
