Jesse Watters on Tuesday claimed that President Joe Biden plagiarized “Dark Brandon” and “Bidenomics,” sparking fierce disagreement on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
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The Fox News host made the assertion after running a clip of “The Last Politician” author Franklin Foer saying that Biden didn’t like being perceived as stupid since a plagiarism scandal helped ruin his bid for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination.
“You don’t have to go back that far,” Watters said. “Biden plagiarized the term Bidenomics. Biden plagiarized his own nickname, Dark Brandon. Remember that was a chanting NASCAR crowd that coined Brandon.”
Viewers of the clip shared by @Acyn pounced on Watters, writing that he ought to look up the definition of plagiarism while noting that both terms had roots in Republican insults about the president. Biden merely co-opted them into positives.
“Not plagiarized, Jesse. He *owned* it,” one person wrote.
Dark Brandon became a meme for a more feisty Biden after opponents began using “Let’s go Brandon” as code for “Fuck Joe Biden,” which was actually chanted at an October 2021 NASCAR race. A reporter interviewing the winner, Brandon Brown, thought fans were yelling “Let’s go Brandon.” Memes of lasers shooting out of “Dark Brandon’s” eyes also circulated.
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Bidenomics was a term that often made the rounds in GOP circles to criticize the president’s economic strategy before it was embraced by Biden, who has not claimed the word as his own. In fact, he has credited “Bidenomics” to The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times.
So, yeah, plagiarism this isn’t.
Critics told Watters as much:
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