UNITED STATES−A former Senator Kamala Harris from California is facing scrutiny for a story she told publicly over the years involving renowned civil rights activist, Martin Luther King Jr.

In an October 6, 2020 article of Elle magazine, Harris retold the story relaying that her parents had her in a stroller as a toddler, but she was not buckled in. They were all at a civil rights march in Oakland, California. The adults were focused on the protest and did not notice she was missing.

“My mother tells the story about how I’m fussing,” Harris says, “and she’s like, ‘Baby, what do you want? What do you need?’ And I just looked at her and I said, ‘Fweedom.’”

In 1965, Martin Luther King told the following story.

“I never will forget a moment in Birmingham when a white policeman accosted a little Negro girl, seven or eight years old, who was walking in a demonstration with her mother,” King stated.

“What do you want?” the policeman asked her gruffly, and the little girl looked him straight in the eye and answered, “Fee-dom.”

“She couldn’t even pronounce it, but she knew. It was beautiful! Many times, when I have been in sorely trying situations, the memory of that little one has come into my mind and has buoyed me,” King told the crowd.

Harris’s story has resurfaced and she is being accused of plagiarism. Allegheny GOP tweeted, “Well, she is on the same ticket as the master of plagiarism.”

Posts on both Twitter and Facebook have led to individuals noting accusations of plagiarism from President Elect Joe Biden. Biden has been accused of plagiarism with his “Build Back Better” campaign. It was reportedly the title of the United Nations climate change initiative  used in April 2020.

In 1988, on the campaign trail, Biden made the following statement, which was not his own, but the words of late Canadian politician, Jack Layton, who died in 2011.

“For love is more powerful than hate. Hope is more powerful than fear. Light is more powerful than dark. This is our moment. This is our mission.”

In September 1987, Biden, speaking of his time at Syracuse University of Law told a crowd while campaigning, “I went to [Syracuse] law school on a full academic scholarship.” He did attend Syracuse University of Law. He was not on a scholarship. He ranked number 76 of approximately 85 students.