PolitiFact: Fact-checking from second night of Republican National Convention.
The second night of the Republican National Convention painted a picture of a compassionate White House in action. But it also showed the blurring of long-standing traditions, and maybe laws, about not mixing politics and government.
President Donald Trump pardoned a man who robbed a Nevada bank and now runs a non-profit. Trump conducted a small naturalization ceremony inside the White House. Mike Pompeo broke from previous secretaries of state by not only giving a convention address, but doing so from Jerusalem.
First lady Melania Trump wrapped up the night with a speech from the renovated Rose Garden, telling a largely unmasked audience seated on the lawn that her husband’s administration has been relentless in its effort to find a vaccine or treatment for COVID-19.
“Donald will not rest until he has done all he can to take care of everyone impacted by this terrible pandemic,” she said.
Her speech didn’t leave much work for fact-checkers, but other remarks from the president’s adult children, his economic adviser and a U.S. senator did.
Here’s what we fact-checked from the RNC’s second night.
“Biden has pledged to defund the police and take away your cherished Second Amendment.” Eric Trump Both claims are False.
Biden has directly said he does not support defunding the police. He said that abuse of power in police departments must stop and reforms are needed. But he’s said police departments should be given the money they need to institute changes. Biden proposed an additional $300 million for community policing.
Biden’s plan to end gun violence calls for banning the manufacture and sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and for the regulation of existing assault weapons under the National Firearms Act.
His plan also calls for a buy back of assault weapons and highcapacity magazines.
But it does not say the Second Amendment should be revoked. “It’s within our grasp to end our gun violence epidemic and respect the Second Amendment, which is limited,” his plan says.
“Biden has pledged to stop border wall construction and give amnesty and health care to all illegal immigrants.”
Some elements of this claim are true but need clarification.
Biden has said “there will not be another foot of wall constructed” if he is elected president. “I’m going to make sure that we have border protection, but it’s going to be based on making sure that we use high-tech capacity to deal with it and at the ports of entry,” Biden said during an interview aired Aug. 6.
Biden says he supports a path to citizenship for an estimated 11 million people living illegally in the country; they would have to have paid taxes and pass a background check. Some argue any path is a form of amnesty. The common reference for amnesty in modern U.S. politics is the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, signed by President Ronald Reagan. The law paved the way for immigrants who were in the country illegally to become lawful permanent residents if they met certain requirements, including being in the country by Jan. 1, 1982.
Biden has said that people should have access to health care, regardless of immigration status; he has not said it should be free. A task force of appointees of Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., recommended that Biden extend Affordable Care Act coverage to immigrants protected from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. It recommended allowing immigrants illegally in the country to also buy health insurance, without financial assistance from the government.
“And if you believe in expanding quality and affordable health care, only President Trump, my father, signed Right to Try into law, the favored nations clause, and other actions to lower drug prices and keep Americans from getting ripped off.” Tiffany Trump
This is somewhat misleading. The Right to Try law that Trump signed in 2018 law allows individuals who have life threatening conditions, have tried all approved treatment options and cannot participate in clinical trials to access unapproved treatments. It did not, however, lower drug prices.
Trump also signed an executive order on July 24, that he has referenced as the “favored nations clause.” But it has not been put into action. Nor has the text of this executive order been made public, so the details of how it would be executed are unclear. The idea of the “favored nations” proposal is that the U.S. would pay similar prices as European countries do for some Medicare Part B physician-administered drugs. This proposal has been strongly opposed by drugmakers and experts told us they were skeptical that it would actually be implemented.
While Trump has long talked about lowering drug prices as one of his top health care goals, he has made little progress in doing so.
Says Joe Biden “voted for the Iraq War. … He supported war in Serbia, Syria, Libya.” U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, RKy.
This is Mostly True.
Biden as a senator voted for resolutions that supported interventions in Iraq and Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro).
As vice president, Biden publicly followed the policies of the Obama administration, which included interventions in Syria and Libya. Biden’s campaign pointed to 2016 reporting that said Biden within the White House argued against intervention in Libya.
President Donald Trump inherited “a stagnant economy” and then “rebuilt” it. Larry Kudlow, director of the U.S. National Economic Council
The idea that Trump inherited a weak economy from President Barack Obama and turned it into a strong one is False — and that was before COVID-19 threw the country back into a recession. In the big picture, Obama inherited the most severe recession in decades. Trump inherited a slow but steady recovery several years in the making.
For instance, for unemployment rates and median weeks of unemployment, the declines under Obama were at least as fast — if not faster — than they were under Trump, pre-coronavirus. That holds for several racial and ethnic groups as well as women. The pattern of monthly job gains was also similar under both Obama and Trump.
Inflation-adjusted wages fell for much of Obama’s first term, but they began rising again during his second term. Their path under Trump has been rising on much the same trajectory.
The poverty rate and food stamp use declined under Trump, but those declines began during Obama’s final years in office. The big declines in foreclosures, bankruptcies and bank failures occurred under Obama, with marginal advances under Trump. Even the stock market, which Trump often notes has risen to record highs on his watch, rose at roughly similar rates under both presidents.
Louis Jacobson, Amy Sherman, Samantha Putterman, Jon Greenberg, Miriam Valverde and Kaiser Health News reporter Victoria Knight contributed to this report.