Rand Paul won't let himself get busted for plagiarism again

In a speech today he revealed his defensive strategy: Footnotes, lots of footnotes

Published November 12, 2013 10:03PM (EST)

Sen. Rand Paul                                   (AP/Reed Saxon)
Sen. Rand Paul (AP/Reed Saxon)

Today Senator Rand Paul (R.-Ky.) made his first major speech since being hit with numerous plagiarism charges --  including some originally uncovered by Salon.

In remarks at The Citadel, the Charleston, S.C. military college, Paul lambasted American foreign policy, faulted Hillary Clinton for her role in Benghazi and said nice things about Ronald Reagan. But the speech's most memorable aspect was the inclusion of 33 footnotes. Here's a sampling of the speech:

In David Nichols' book, Eisenhower 1956, he writes that Ike "believed, with good reason, that once the violence begins, everything changes and you can throw your plans in the trash." [6]

It's too bad more in Washington don't heed Ike's advice today.

In Egypt recently, we saw a military coup that this Administration tells us is not a military coup. In a highly unstable situation, our government continued to send F-16s, Abrams tanks and American-made tear gas. My guess is that the protestors on the receiving end of tear gas made in Pennsylvania don't harbor warm and fuzzy feelings for America. [7]

Before sending aid to the Generals, we sent F-16s, tanks and billions in aid to the government they just overthrew-President Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood.[8]

Before Morsi, we sent F-16s, tanks and over $70 billion to Hosni Mubarak, a dictator who we called our ally. [9]

And the footnotes:

[6] Nichols, D. (2011). Eisenhower 1956. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. Page number?

[7] Wali, S. O., & Sami, D. A. (2011). Egyptian police using U.S.-made tear gas against demonstrators. ABC News, Retrieved from http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/egypt-protest-police-us-made-tear-gas-demonstrators/story?id=12785598

[8] Sharp, Jeremy, "Egypt: Background and U.S. Relations," See: Table 3: U.S. Foreign Assistance to Egypt, July 19, 2013; Congressional Research Service.

[9] Ibid.

 


By Sarah Gray

Sarah Gray is an assistant editor at Salon, focusing on innovation. Follow @sarahhhgray or email sgray@salon.com.

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Citations Military Plagiarism Senator Rand Paul The Citadel