Rand Paul Fires Back at Plagiarism Claims

Earlier this week, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow accused Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) of lifting sentences from a 1990s science fiction movie’s Wikipedia page and using them in a speech to support Virginia gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli.

In an interview with Fusion’s Jorge Ramos, Paul was asked if there is any truth to Maddow’s claim.

“We borrowed the plot lines from Gattaca. It’s a movie,” Paul said. “I gave credit to the people who wrote the movie…Nothing I said was not given attribution to where it came from.”

But the allegations of plagiarism against Paul go deeper. BuzzFeed reported that this is not the first time that the Tea Party favorite has used Wikipedia as a source.

According to the site, Paul plagiarized lines from the movie “Stand and Deliver” for a speech in June at the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles.

Paul told Ramos that the accusations of plagiarism are blown out of proportion.

“People are making a mountain out of a molehill,” he said.

Veronica Bautista is a segment producer for AMERICA with Jorge Ramos.