“Kamala Harris plagiarized at least a dozen sections of her criminal-justice book, Smart on Crime, according to a new investigation,” reports Christopher Rufo. “The current vice president even lifted material from Wikipedia.”

You might say she was “unburdened by what has been” written by other people.

Rufo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, has exposed plagiarists before — most famously former Harvard University President Claudine Gay last year. There’s little reason to doubt his reporting on Harris, especially given “the receipts,” as he calls the proof in his X thread. He further lays out the case in a Substack column.

He teases Harris’s “unique rhetorical style,” complete with phony accents and mindless catchphrases. She’s also been the subject of mockery for basically copying Joe Biden’s campaign platform. Donald Trump even teased her in the debate for swiping some of his ideas, suggesting that he might give her a MAGA hat. This plagiarism, however, is more serious. Rufo says:

At the beginning of Harris’s political career, in the run-up to her campaign to serve as California’s attorney general, she and co-author Joan O'C Hamilton published a small volume, entitled Smart on Crime: A Career Prosecutor’s Plan to Make Us Safer. The book helped to establish her credibility on criminal-justice issues.

The ensuing examples are indeed troubling, even if her book, like those of countless other political figures, was ghostwritten. The publisher, Chronicle Books, is certainly scrambling.

It’s also a pretty good sign that it’s all true when The New York Times circles the wagons. Rather than focus on the plagiarism, which the Times dismissed as “not serious,” the headline is this laugher: “Conservative Activist Seizes on Passages From Harris Book.” The Times also lied by omission, saying Rufo had reported five sections when, in fact, he had cited more than a dozen.

The point I want to make here, though, is broader than simply, well, copying and pasting the examples Rufo lays out, or even chastising the Leftmedia (though that’s always an amusing pastime).

Harris has been vice president for nearly four years. Before that, she was the U.S. senator from California for four years, before which she was attorney general of California for six years after serving as San Francisco district attorney for seven years. That look backward is important because the point of her plagiarism is just what Rufo said — “to establish her credibility.”

Plagiarism tends to have the opposite effect.

Harris was appointed DA under, at best, questionable circumstances. Former San Francisco Mayor and California Democrat kingmaker Willie Brown had an extramarital affair with Harris, to whom he gifted a BMW and the DA post as thanks. That position put her on track to advance through the Democrat ranks. At each turn, it was more about her identity than her skill or ability.

That is the definition of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).

Whereas The New York Times focused its story on Rufo and his work targeting “Black scholars, particularly Black women who work in diversity and inclusion,” that turns the problem on its head. The story isn’t that Rufo noticed. It’s that DEI hires relied on plagiarism to bolster their résumés and careers, precisely as Harris is likely guilty of doing.

Biden, who had his own plagiarism scandal, chose Harris as VP only because she is a “woman of color.” He was painted into a corner when fellow Democrat presidential contestant Amy Klobuchar said in June 2020, “This is a moment to put a woman of color on that ticket.”

With every moment in front of a camera, Harris proves she was a DEI hire who should not be permitted to fail upwards yet again.

As for her credibility, she depends in large measure on the contrast with Trump: She’s the prosecutor, he’s the felon. Yet, if she couldn’t even write a book a criminal justice — never mind her long record of releasing drug dealers and murderers — what commends her to the task of being the nation’s chief executive?

You may not like Donald Trump’s character, but don’t believe for a moment that Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Tim Walz, or most any other nationally known Democrat has superior character. Plus, Trump happens to have a record of policy success that he didn’t need to steal from someone else.

Follow Nate Jackson on X/Twitter.