Bloomberg campaign plagiarized passages of its policy plans, report finds

Michael Bloomberg’s presidential campaign lifted portions of its policy plans from news outlets, not-for-profit organizations and policy groups, in some cases plagiarizing passages verbatim, according to the Intercept.

At least eight plans or fact sheets put out by the Bloomberg campaign copied material from news outlets including CNN, Time, and CBS, and organizations including the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the American Medical Association, without attribution.

In a statement, the campaign said the policies were sent out via an email newsletter service that “doesn’t support footnote formatting”, adding: “We have since added citations and links to these documents.”

Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York and billionaire businessman, is connected to some of the organizations from which his campaign pulled information. He co-founded Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control advocacy group, and Building America’s Future Educational Fund, a not-for-profit focused on infrastructure investment.

In some cases, the Intercept pointed out his campaign appears to have cobbled together passages from several sources. His plan for green infrastructure, for example, pulls verbatim from Recode, Curbed New York and Governing magazine, as well as Building America’s Future and other sources.

After the Intercept approached the campaign, the entire fact sheet on “Smarter Faster Safer Greener: A Plan To Bring America’s Infrastructure Into the 21st Century” was taken down.

This week, the Democratic National Committee changed debate qualification rules, removing a barrier that had barred Bloomberg’s self-financed campaign from participating. He is poised to appear onstage during the debate in Nevada on 19 February and for the first time face off directly against his 2020 competitors.

Bloomberg did not seek to compete in Iowa or New Hampshire, the first primary contests of the election. Still, he has surged to fourth place in the realclearpolitics.com national polling average. He has earned the endorsements of several mayors across the country and several House Democrats.