Elise Stefanik Under Pressure Over Letter 'Plagiarism'

Elise Stefanik has been accused by Kathy Manning of plagiarizing her letter condemning university presidents about their response to antisemitism on college campuses.

Harvard President Claudine Gay, MIT President Sally Kornbluth and University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill all gave testimony at a congressional hearing on antisemitism on college campuses last week following reported incidences of anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim hate alike that have increased since the October 7 attack by Hamas against Israel. They were criticized for their response and Magill eventually resigned as president over accusations she appeared to evade a question on campus antisemitism.

Following their testimony, Manning, a North Carolina Democrat, originally worked with New York Republican Stefanik on a joint message denouncing the presidents, they both confirmed on X, formerly Twitter.

But Stefanik wanted to call for the presidents to resign and Manning disagreed, they said. Despite the disagreement, Manning published her letter before Stefanik published a letter using the same language as Manning's letter in the first few paragraphs, but ending with a call for the presidents to resign.

This sparked plagiarism accusations, with Manning writing on X: "Can anyone spot the difference between the first 3 paragraphs of these two letters...? One is my letter, and one is @RepStefanik plagiarizing my letter to try and get her 15 minutes of fame. Don't take my word for it, see for yourself."

Newsweek has contacted representatives for Stefanik and Manning by email to comment on this story.

Manning added she led the letter and shared it with Stefanik to make a "bipartisan effort" but said Stefanik's edits made it clear "she didn't care about protecting Jewish students."

"All she cared about was calling for the resignation of university presidents to score political points," she added.

The letters both begin: "On October 7th we witnessed Hamas terrorists perpetrate the deadliest attack against the Jewish people since the Holocaust. In the weeks since, there has been an explosion of antisemitic incidents in the United States and around the world. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has recorded 1,481 antisemitic incidents—292 of which occurred on college and university campuses—a nearly 300 percent increase relative to the same period last year."

Manning drew support from Democratic colleagues, with Maryland Democrat Jamie Raskin accusing Stefanik of "shocking intellectual dishonesty and narcissistic preening."

But in response to Manning's tweet, Stefanik called the criticism "desperate and deranged" and accused Manning of attacking her because she "got much less support for her weaker letter."

She said she edited the letter "to strengthen the language" and Manning's office "went radio silent."

"Our offices then decided to go in different directions with two separate versions of the letter when Rep. Manning did not want to call for the firing of the presidents among other significant edits she refused to accept," she said. "This is something that happens everyday on Capitol Hill."