The Morning Briefing: Joe Biden Never Met a Speech He Couldn't Plagiarize

Joe Biden, Plagiarist Extraordinaire

Here we go again. Happy Monday, my Kruiser Morning Briefing friends.

It will be an interesting week watching to see how the Republicans counter last week’s DNC convention. Predictably, the Democrats got glowing press and they’re all still swooning over Joe Biden’s speech. Those of us here on planet Earth who saw it know that it was a sleepy affair. Here’s hoping whatever the GOP does this week is a little more caffeinated.

My colleagues here will again be liveblogging each night of the RNC. The link will be at the top of the home page.

Let’s get back to our would-be Empathetic Grandpa-in-Chief, Joe Biden.

Biden has been angling for the presidency since the 1980s. His first bid was derailed by accusations of plagiarism from his college days.

Well, it looks like Grandpa Gropes may be up to his old ways again.

Matt wrote a post on Saturday examining an allegation that Biden’s sleepwalk of a speech last Thursday night was a bit similar to a letter that was written by a Canadian politician:

Joe Biden has been dogged by plagiarism accusations for years, and his Thursday night speech formally accepting the Democratic nomination for president will not go down in history as a speech he wasn’t accused of plagiarizing.

According to Alexander Panetta, the Washington correspondent for CBC News, “a number of Canadians” found part of Biden’s speech to be very “similar” to Canadian politician Jack Layton’s farewell letter before his death.

Oops.

As Matt points out, nothing was lifted verbatim, but it was similar enough to make it sound familiar to a lot of Canadians.

Given his past, Biden’s speechwriters should be extra-vigilant about even giving the appearance of plagiarism. Matt also notes that, even though this example may not be textbook plagiarism, Biden’s history makes it easy to think it may be a mild repackaging.

Matt’s post goes into detail about Biden’s other plagiarism transgressions, which do not reflect well on a candidate who babbles incessantly about character.

A tendency towards plagiarism is a sign of an unoriginal mind, a description that certainly fits Biden.

One of Biden’s main campaign points is to hammer President Trump about how he has handled the response to the coronavirus pandemic. One would presume that Biden’s approach would be radically different since he is using it as a major selling point while advocating for regime change.

One would be wrong.

My Townhall colleague Katie Pavlich noticed something during Biden’s speech last week:

Minus the need for more rapid testing, everything Biden is proposing right now on combatting Wuhan coronavirus President Trump has already done

— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) August 21, 2020

On Friday, the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal came to essentially the same conclusion.

If our political mainstream media had any integrity or intellectual curiosity Biden would be getting raked over the coals for this. As we are all painfully aware, however, the MSM exists solely to carry this rotting carcass of a candidate across the finish line.

Biden and his handlers will no doubt “borrow” more things as the campaign goes on. It’s not as if he is a wellspring of fresh ideas who gives them new material to work with. Kamala Harris isn’t bringing a lot of policy acumen to the ticket. She’s mostly there just to sneer at the president.

Nothing about the Democratic ticket is as it is being portrayed by the media. A good rule of thumb going forward is to just assume the opposite of what you are reading about Biden or Harris is true.

That’s going to be the plan here.

“War for the White House” Podcast

Biden

Townhall Media will be producing a twice-weekly podcast about the state of the election between now and November. It will feature a rotating cast from our deep bench at all the Mothership sites (PJ Media, Townhall, HotAir, RedState, Twitchy, and Bearing Arms). New episodes will be posted every Tuesday and Friday on our sites and I will post them every Monday and Wednesday here. I had the pleasure of hosting the most recent episode. I was joined by RedState Deputy Managing Editor Jennifer Van Laar and Townhall staff writer Ellie Bufkin. Enjoy!

Bee Me

Trump Asked To Please Stop Making 'Pew Pew' Noises Throughout Space Force Strategy Meeting https://t.co/9PkwS7FLIo

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) August 23, 2020

The Kruiser Kabana

A 300-year-old fresco by Andrea Pozzo. The entire ceiling is flat. pic.twitter.com/FnXXXnwtnY

— Architecture Hub (@architecturehub) August 23, 2020

We should start fining people who say “new normal.”

___

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PJ Media Senior Columnist and Associate Editor Stephen Kruiser is the author of “Don’t Let the Hippies Shower” and “Straight Outta Feelings: Political Zen in the Age of Outrage,” both of which address serious subjects in a humorous way. Monday through Friday he edits PJ Media’s “Morning Briefing.” His columns appear twice a week.