Crowd boos after Clinton accuses Obama of 'Xeroxing' language

Updated

Moments ago, during Thursday's CNN/Univision debate, CNN moderator Campbell Brown asked Obama about an alleged plagiarism charge, where he used language similar to Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick.

"The notion that I had plagiarized from one of my national co-chairs who gave me the line and suggested that I use it is silly," he replied. "This is where we start to get into silly season in politics and I think people start getting discouraged about it."

The Illinois senator, smiling, went on to praise his own speeches.

"And I gotta admit, some of them are pretty good," he said.

Brown asked Clinton, "Senator Clinton, is it the silly season?"

"Well, I think that If your candidacy is going to be about words, then they should be your own words," Clinton said, to initial applause. "That's a simple proposition. Lifting whole passages from someone else's speeches is not change you can believe in, it's change you can Xerox."

Obama interrupted, saying, "That's not what happened."

"Barack," Clinton said, "it is. If you look at the YouTube of these videos, it does raise questions."

The crowd booed.

This video is from CNN, broadcast Feb. 21, 2008.





Correction: Quotes updated after transcript became available. Video added after article filed.



