In light of all the hubbub surrounding Melania Trump’s speech at the inaugural night of the Republican National Convention — which appears to have been cribbed nearly word for word from Michelle Obama’s speech in 2008 — let’s take a trip down memory lane and recall that time Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) plagiarized recipes in an attempt to prove her ethnic background.
Warren, who is being vetted as a potential Hillary Clinton running mate, has been accused of falsely claiming to be Native American in order to gain an academic advantage.
When her heritage came under public scrutiny during her bid for the U.S. Senate in 2012, Warren pointed to several recipes she submitted for her cousin’s cookbook, entitled “Pow Wow Chow,” as evidence that she is actually descended from Native Americans.
But these recipes (“Cold Omelets with Crab Meat” and “Crab with Tomato Mayonnaise Dressing”) appear to have been ripped nearly verbatim from an article written by Pierre Franey and published in The New York Times News Service five years earlier, Legal Insurrection noted.
Michael Patrick Leahy pointed out the similarities back in 2012:
Ms. Warren’s 1984 recipe for Crab with Tomato Mayonnaise Dressing is a word-for-word copy of Mr. Franey’s [of The New York Times News Service] 1979 recipe.
Mrs. Warren’s 1984 recipe for Cold Omelets with Crab Meat contains all four of the ingredients listed in Mr. Franey’s 1979 recipe in the exact same portion but lists five additional ingredients. More significantly, her instructions are virtually a word for word copy of Mr. Franey’s instructions from this 1979 article. Both instructions specify the use of a ‘seven inch Teflon pan.’
Here’s an excerpt from Warren’s recipe:
Use a small omelet pan or, preferably, a seven-inch Teflon pan. Heat about one-half teaspoon butter in the pan. Add about one-third cup of the egg mixture. Let cook until firm and lightly brown on the bottom, stirring quickly with a fork until the omelet starts to set. When set, slip a large pancake turner under the omelet starts to set. When set, slip a large pancake turner under the omelet and turn it quickly to the other side. Let cook about five seconds. Remember, you want to produce a flat omelet, not a typical folded omelet. Turn the omelets out flat onto a sheet of wax paper. Continue making omelets until all the egg mixture is used.
Compared to Franey’s (which you can read in full here):
Use a small omelet pan or, preferably, a seven-inch Teflon pan. Heat about one-half teaspoon butter in the pan. Add about one-third cup of the egg mixture. Let cook until firm and lightly browned on the bottom, stirring quickly with a fork until the omelet starts to set. When set, slip a large pancake turner under the omelet starts to set. When set, slip a large pancake turner under the omelet and turn it quickly to the other side. Let cook about five seconds. Remember you want to produce a flat omelet, not a typical folded omelet. Turn the omelets out flat onto a sheet of wax paper. Continue making omelets until all the egg mixture is used.
The two paragraphs are nearly identical. The only difference this reporter noticed was her use of the word “brown” instead of Franey’s “browned.” Yowza.
