Tea Party Senator Rand Paul took responsibility Tuesday for instances of plagiarism exposed in his speeches and writings, saying his office has been "sloppy" and pledging to add footnotes to all of his future material.
"Ultimately I'm the boss, and things go out under my name, and so it is my fault," Paul said on CNN's The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.
Following Monday's report in BuzzFeed that Rand Paul plagiarized part of his September 20th article in The Washington Times, the conservative paper has ended the Kentucky Senator's weekly column, which he's written since the summer.
“We expect our columnists to submit original work and to properly attribute material, and we appreciate that the senator and his staff have taken responsibility for an oversight in one column,” Times Editor John Solomon said.
Before "taking responsibility," Paul blamed his staff, and responded on ABC's This Week that he was being “unfairly targeted by a bunch of hacks and haters.” Name calling wasn't enough for Paul, who went on to say he wanted to shoot the haters...but only if it was legal.
“I take it as an insult, and I will not lie down and say people can call me dishonest, misleading or misrepresenting -- I have never intentionally done so and like I say, 'If dueling were legal in Kentucky, if they keep it up, you know it’d be a duel challenge,' Paul said.
Paul argued Tuesday that 98% of his speeches are extemporaneous, and said that he and his staff will now "footnote everything as if it were a college paper." When speaking to The New York Times said that the changes are intended to "make people leave me the hell alone," but did not rule out the discovery of more instances.
