‘HIT PIECE’

Elise Stefanik Accused of Plagiarizing Antisemitism Letter

Stefanik wanted to use the letter to push for university presidents to resign, but her colleague thought that was an overreaction.

A Democratic congresswoman claimed that Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) copied sections of her letter word-for-word that criticized college presidents for their testimony about on-campus antisemitism. As members of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, Rep. Kathy Manning (D-NC) and Stefanik were initially collaborating, Manning spokesperson Gia Scirrotto told Politico. But emails between the two offices reviewed by the news website revealed that the pair fell out when Stefanik wanted to use the letter to push for resignations, which Manning thought was an overreaction. The New York lawmaker then allegedly used various portions of the draft in her Friday letter and took off Manning’s name. Following Politico’s request for comment on the situation, Stefanik posted on X, formerly Twitter, that Manning “got much less support for her weaker letter” and was “now trying to do a hit piece to help panicked Democrats who are clearly on the wrong side of history protecting these university presidents.”