The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Did Bill Clinton get it right Tuesday night?

- By Jim Tharpe PolitiFact Georgia Bill Clinton said this of his wife: Hillary Clinton helped “get done” the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Bill Clinton also said this: “The approval of the United States was 20 points higher when (Hillary Clinton) lef

Bill Clinton became salesman in chief for a night at the Democratic National Convention, trying to win over voters for his wife.

And the nonpartisa­n fact-checkers from PolitiFact were there, assuring him a ride on the AJC Truth-O-Meter, courtesy of PolitiFact and PolitiFact Georgia.

Want to see how he fared? Abbreviate­d versions of our fact checks are below.

The latest fact checks can be found at www.myajc.com/s/news/ politifact/.

Check us out daily at 7:45 a.m. during the convention on News 95.5 and AM 750 WSB.

Want to comment on our rulings or suggest one of your own? Just go to our Facebook page

(www.facebook.com/politifact. georgia). You can also follow us on Twitter

(http://twitter.com/politifact­ga).

The former president said that after health care reform failed in the 1990s because they couldn’t break a Senate filibuster, Hillary Clinton sought to tackle health care reform piece by piece, including expanding health insurance for children.

“In 1997, Congress passed the Children’s Health Insurance Program, still an important part of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. It insures more than 8 million kids,” Clinton said in his speech on the second night of the Democratic convention in Philadelph­ia. “There are a lot of other things in that bill she got done, piece by piece, pushing that rock up the hill.”

Her husband avoided specifying how much credit she should get for that and whether she worked with both parties to make that happen.

We rate this claim Mostly True. The approval ratings for the United States did go up on Hillary Clinton’s watch.

We found Pew data for surveys taken in 20 countries between 2008 and 2013. Respondent­s were asked, “Please tell me if you have a very favorable, somewhat favorable, somewhat unfavorabl­e or very unfavorabl­e opinion of the United States.”

Taking into account the whole list of 20 countries, the median change for the countries surveyed was a gain of 10 percentage points. That’s a significan­t increase, but it’s not the 20 percentage-point increase Clinton cited.

The increases in the BBC and Gallup polls were in the same ballpark.

We rate Clinton’s claim Half True. The four-second clip is an example of where context can be crucial and how political opponents can spin your words.

It omits Trump’s subsequent response that “I treat women with great respect.” Other context is also missing.

The claim is heavily spun to misconstru­e what Trump said.

We rate Clinton’s claim Mostly False. Trump once said that but immediatel­y clarified his position and said he meant doctors should be punished for providing abortions, not women who undergo the procedure.

There’s no evidence that punishing women for abortions was a long-held position by Trump.

Boxer’s statement is partially accurate but misleading.

We rate it Half True. Trump did receive a grant for his building at 40 Wall St., which was less than a mile away from the Trade Center, but the property was eligible under the grant criteria.

He also did say in 2001 that his properties were not affected by the attack, although he likely meant physically. The grant also provided compensati­on for economic losses.

We rate Crowley’s claim Half True.

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