Trump's education secretary pick plagiarized her Senate questionnaire responses: report

A Senate panel is scheduled to vote on Tuesday on President Donald Trump's education secretary pick, Betsy DeVos. The Michigan billionaire whose preferred policies would weaken public schools was a controversial pick for the Trump cabinet, as with most other nominees.

The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that DeVos, the nominee for secretary of education appears to have plagiarized her responses in a questionnaire submitted to top Democrats on Monday.

According to the report, DeVos answered various questions with "phrases from other sources without attribution — including from a top Obama administration civil rights official." For instance, responding to a question about addressing LGBTQ bullying, DeVos wrote, "Every child deserves to attend school in a safe, supportive environment where they can learn, thrive, and grow." 

The Post noted her response was almost exactly the same as a comment from Obama's former Justice Department civil rights division head, Vanita Gupta who said in 2016, "Every child deserves to attend school in a safe, supportive environment that allows them to thrive and grow." 

DeVos is not the first Trump nominee to be accused of plagiarism, though her borrowed phrases were used for her Senate confirmation questionnaire. Earlier this month, Trump's pick for senior communications director for the National Security Council, Monica Crowley, stepped down after she was accused of plagiarizing thousands of words in a Ph.D. dissertation for Columbia University.