After slamming reports of plagiarism as the work of "hacks" and "haters," U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., admitted on Tuesday that his office has been "sloppy" in his speeches and writings.
But the acknowledgment came too late for a Washington newspaper that has published hundreds of Paul's op-ed columns—and won't anymore.The story began last Monday when MSNBC's Rachel Maddow found parts of Paul's speech at Liberty University referring to the science fiction film
Gattaca were lifted from the movie's Wikipedia page.Since then other outlets have found parts of Paul's
books,
columns and other public speeches were lifted nearly word for word from others without attribution to its original authors."Ultimately, I'm the boss, and things go out under my name, and so it is my fault," Paul told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "But I would say that people need to also understand that, you know, I never have intentionally ever presented anyone's ideas as my own or tried to pass off anything."From
The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer:Observers noted that Paul remained defiant, however. The senator is a speculative 2016 presidential contender, but told Blitzer he is being held to a different standard than others."We're now going to footnote everything and make sure it has a reference, because I do take this personally, and I don't want to be accused of misrepresenting myself, and I've never intended to do so," Paul said.But fallout from the controversy continued late Tuesday evening when The Washington Times announced it is ending Paul's columns with the newspaper.From
The Washington Times:
The newspaper and the senator mutually agreed to end his weekly column, which has appeared on each Friday in the newspaper since the summer. “We expect our columnists to submit original work and to properly attribute material, and we appreciate that the senator and his staff have taken responsibility for an oversight in one column,” Times Editor John Solomon said. “We also appreciate the original insights he has shared with our readers over the last few months and look forward to future contributions from Sen. Paul and any other members of Congress who take the time to help educate our readers with original thought leadership pieces,” Mr. Solomon said.
