Democrat Joe Biden was elected US President in 2020, when he faced former Republican President Donald Trump (2017-2021) at the polls. However, this was not his first attempt to reach the highest office in the country.
In 1987, the Democratic candidate, a senator at the time, had his candidacy for president frustrated by an accusation of plagiarism, which sank his chances of becoming the party’s name at that time for the 1988 elections, for which he was one of the favorites.
The incident took place during a debate in the Democratic primaries that year. Biden was accused of plagiarizing a speech by British politician Neil Kinnock, former leader of the UK Labour Party.
According to the allegations, the American president allegedly removed excerpts from one of Kinnock’s most moving speeches about his family origins without giving due credit to the author. Many believe that this incident was the reason the Democrat lost his first nomination for the highest office in the United States.
The speech in question by Kinnock, considered a natural orator, was made at the Welsh Labour Party Conference in Llandudno in May 1987, which opened an election campaign against former Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
A newspaper article New York Times from that time, written by Maureen Dowd, stated that Democratic presidential campaign strategists were amazed by the British Labor leader’s text, including Joe Biden.
The Democratic hopeful then inserted statements from Kinnock’s speech into his own campaign remarks.
At first, he was careful to credit the statements to their author, however in a debate with other Democratic candidates Michael Dukakis, Jesse Jackson, Al Gore and others, in the state of Iowa, he used excerpts from the Labor Party, but forgot the original source, implying that it was his own content.
According to the newspaper The Guardianthe issue became a problem for Biden from that moment on, who shortly after announced that he was dropping out of the electoral race.
According to statements by the author of the speech himself, who was head of the Labor Party from 1983 to 1992, he discovered the use of his text through an individual who worked on Dukakis’ campaign – who was competing for the nomination with Biden that year.
He then connected the speech to the British and shared it with his superiors in the Dukakis campaign, who soon leaked it to the press. In September 1987, Biden announced that he was dropping out of the race.
New pressure on Biden
After facing accusations of plagiarism for decades, the now 81-year-old American president is going through a turbulent new phase in politics.
After the debate with Donald Trump on the 27th, in which his performance was criticized by the press and even by party allies, the Democrat seeking re-election is considered too old to remain in the White House.
As a result, speculation is growing about her possible replacement in the November election candidacy. Vice President Kamala Harris is seen as the favorite to take over the electoral race.
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