Fact check: Did Rep. Elise Stefanik plagiarize an NC lawmaker’s words?

Rep. Kathy Manning isn’t one to be caught up in drama on Capitol Hill.

But accusations from the Republican conference chairwoman, Rep. Elise Stefanik, that Democrats were

“desperate and deranged” over a letter on antisemitism were enough for Manning to get involved in a social media spat this week.

Manning, a Democrat from Greensboro, accused Stefanik, a Republican from New York, of plagiarizing” her letter in exchange for “15 minutes of fame.”

So did Stefanik plagiarize Manning’s words? Based on emails between the two House members’ offices, it sure looks that way.

Stefanik, though, said it “happens everyday on Capitol Hill.” Her office didn’t respond to an email inquiry from McClatchy late Tuesday afternoon about the accusations from Manning and the email exchanges between their two staffs.

Testimony from presidents on antisemitism

Stefanik kicked off the social media posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, just before 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, saying that Democrats were attacking Republicans for uniting behind calls to fire the presidents of M.I.T., Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania. Stefanik is a graduate of Harvard.

Penn’s M. Elizabeth Magill, Harvard’s Claudine Gay and Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sally Kornbluth testified Dec. 6 before the Education and Workforce Committee about antisemitism on their campuses. Stefanik asked the presidents whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” constituted “bullying or harassment.” All three presidents stumbled over their answers, concluding that it depended on the context, and leaving many stunned by their lack of condemnation.

The committee hearing got the Saturday Night Live treatment.

It came as universities deal with fallout from the war between Israel and Hamas, including how to deal with campus protesters who critics say have used antisemitic language in their support of Palestinian resistance.

Manning, who is Jewish, and Reps. Virginia Foxx, a Republican from Banner Elk, and Alma Adams, a Democrat from Charlotte, all sit on the committee.

Magill resigned Saturday due to her comments before the committee.

Stefanik and Manning’s letters

On Friday, the boards of MIT, Harvard and Penn received letters from two groups of lawmakers, one led by Stefanik and one by Manning, with nearly identical opening paragraphs. In the fourth paragraph, the letters diverge, with Stefanik focusing on calling on the boards to fire the presidents and Manning asking for changes to the universities’ codes of conduct to protect Jewish students and faculty.

Politico first reported on the letters, which led to a war of words on social media about how the two identical openings happened.

“Here are the facts: Congresswoman Kathy Manning approached me on the House Floor with a rough draft for a joint letter to the board of MIT, Harvard, & Penn,” Stefanik posted. “I told her I would like to review and would likely have many edits to strengthen the language.”

This is true. Manning’s office provided an email thread that starts with Stefanik’s team acknowledging that Manning and Stefanik spoke on the House floor Thursday and that Manning had provided to Stefanik a hard copy of a letter she planned to send to the universities. Stefanik’s team asked for a digital copy.

Stefanik continued her post by saying that after her office made significant edits to Manning’s letter, Manning’s office stopped responding, going “radio silent” as Stefanik continued to circulate the edited version to Republicans. She said the two offices then “decided to go in different directions” and to work independently on two letters because Manning did not want to call for the firings, among other “significant edits she refused to accept.”

It is false that Manning’s team stopped responding. At 3:40 p.m. on Thursday, Stefanik’s team sent back their edits on Manning’s letter. At 5:42 p.m., Manning’s team came back with a second set of edits, saying that if Stefanik’s team agreed with this version they would circulate the letters.

After an hour, Stefanik’s team said they had more edits and would not budge on leaving in quotes from the presidents’ testimony and calling for the presidents’ removal.

At 8:12 p.m., Stefanik’s team added that they planned to circulate their first edit of the article and would love to have Manning’s involvement.

At 9:20 a.m. on Friday, Manning’s team wrote back, saying they were still open to working with Stefanik’s team on finding a compromise, but that Stefanik couldn’t just take Manning’s letter.

Nevertheless, Stefanik sent her version of the letter that same day, with more than 70 signatures. Manning sent her own letter, also on Friday, with a handful of signatures.

In her social media post on Monday, Stefanik said that her version had more bipartisan support.

Manning hit back, posting the two copies of the letters and asking if anyone could spot the difference in the first three paragraphs.

“When I shared my letter with (Rep. Stefanik) to try to make a bipartisan effort, she made it clear with her edits that she didn’t care about protecting Jewish students,” Manning said. “All she cared about was calling for the resignation of university presidents to score political points.”

By that time, the Harvard president was also facing accusations of plagiarism, which Stefanik mentioned in her post. Harvard concluded there were instances of “inadequate citation” in Gay’s work, the New York Times and others reported, while clearing her of any “research misconduct.”