Biden Bites Kinnock (1987)
This Day in Esoteric Political History
Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia
4.6 • 982 Ratings
🗓️ 28 August 2022
⏱️ 21 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It’s August 27th. This day in 1987, rumors are building that Joe Biden had plagiarized remarks from British politician Neil Kinnock. Soon, reporters would find evidence that Biden used lines directly from Kinnock’s remarks, without attribution, in a debate — and other instances of plagiarism would emerge in the coming weeks.
Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss how Biden’s plagiarism was uncovered, how it sank his 1988 presidential bid, and how his reputation for borrowing phrases has persisted.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia. |
| 0:07.0 | My name is Jody Avergan. |
| 0:09.0 | This day August 28th, 1987. |
| 0:15.0 | The political world is starting to gear up for next year's presidential election, the election of 1988, |
| 0:20.0 | and all that usual jockeying that's going on for early frontrunner status, that is in the air, |
| 0:25.4 | especially for the Democrats. It is already a very crowded field, and among that crowded field is one |
| 0:31.6 | Joe Biden, senator from Delaware. |
| 0:34.0 | Biden as we know has run for president a number of times before finally |
| 0:37.5 | winning in 2020 but he ran for the nomination in 1984 now he was trying again and as it had every time it |
| 0:46.1 | did not go so well the reason for that was in large part because of what |
| 0:50.4 | happened late in the summer of 1987 what we are talking about today. During a debate in Iowa with other |
| 0:57.5 | Democratic hopefuls, Joe Biden offered a closing statement in which he |
| 1:01.8 | shared some personal details and some really |
| 1:04.1 | stirring language he asked why it was that he was the first in his family to go to college |
| 1:09.1 | to escape the mining town that he grew up in he offered offered a tribute to the hard working people in |
| 1:13.7 | his family and his hometown and he argued that it was the Democratic Party that |
| 1:19.0 | had given him quote a platform on which to stand. |
| 1:23.0 | By all accounts this was a really moving speech |
| 1:26.0 | one he'd kind of used before. |
| 1:28.0 | People in the room really felt like it was Biden |
| 1:30.0 | who won that debate and had positioned himself |
| 1:32.0 | as one of the key voices in the Democratic Party, |
... |
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