Sen. Rand Paul fired back Sunday against charges that he plagiarized parts of his speeches from Wikipedia, saying he “will not lie down” and let people call him dishonest.
“I take it as an insult, and I will not lie down and say people can call me dishonest, misleading or misrepresenting — I have never intentionally done so and like I say, ’If dueling were legal in Kentucky, if they keep it up, you know it’d be a duel challenge,’” Mr. Paul, Kentucky Republican, said on ABC’s “This Week,” Politico reported.
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow reported last week that parts of a speech Mr. Paul gave in support of Virginia Attorney General Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, the Republican candidate for governor, had been lifted from the Wikipedia entry for the movie “Gattaca,” The Huffington Post reported.
Mr. Paul told Fusion last week that he gave adequate credit to the writers of “Gattaca” and that Miss Maddow is just a “political enemy” who has “an ax to grind.”
“We borrowed the plot lines from Gattaca. It’s a movie. I gave credit to the people who wrote the movie. … Nothing I said was not given attribution to where it came from,” he said.
“The rest of it’s making a mountain out of a molehill from people I think basically who are political enemies and have an ax to grind,” he continued. “This is really about information and attacks coming from haters. The person who’s leading this attack — she’s been spreading hate on me for about three years now.”
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• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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