Fact-Checking Night 2 of the Republican National Convention

A team of New York Times reporters followed the developments and fact-checked the speakers, providing context and explanation.

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President Trump speaking to supporters during a visit to the Republican National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., on Monday.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times
  • On the second night of the Republican National Convention, some speakers employed misleading and exaggerated assertions and false statements to promote the political narratives President Trump wants to run on in the final stage of the campaign, from the president’s character to religion, race, immigration, the economy and America’s place in the world. A team of New York Times reporters followed all the developments and fact-checked the speakers, providing context and explanation.

  • While the Republicans accurately cited some of Mr. Trump’s accomplishments, like employment gains for women and new funding for Native American communities, on other issues they sought to recast Mr. Trump’s image, for example by showing him as welcoming of immigrants despite his long anti-immigration record. On some topics they sought to draw sharp if sometimes unfounded contrasts with Democrats and Joseph R. Biden Jr., including false assertions that Democratic ticket would leave no room for people of faith and would seek to defund the police and take away the Second Amendment.

  • Republicans also sought to divert attention from Mr. Trump’s past and present scandals and investigations. In one case, a speaker mixed truthful, misleading and exaggerated statements to portray a pattern of corruption involving Mr. Biden’s family, especially involving Mr. Biden’s son, Hunter.

  • Secretary of State Mike Pompeo — who appeared from Israel and claimed to be doing so as a private citizen — overstated a number of elements of Mr. Trump’s foreign policy record, from dealings with North Korea and NATO to the president’s response to China in the wake of the coronavirus.

Linda Qiu
Aug. 25, 2020, 11:21 p.m. ET

President Trump “has built an administration with an unprecedented number of women in leadership roles.”

— Melania Trump, the first lady

False.

The number of high-ranking women in Mr. Trump’s administration is not “unprecendented.” Melania Trump’s remark goes a step further than a comment made by a narrator in a video earlier in the program.

Of the 877 key executive branch nominees put forth by Mr. Trump for positions that require Senate confirmation, about 27.6 percent have been women. Of the 679 that have been confirmed, about 25 percent have been women.

That’s a lower percentage than the appointments of both former President Bill Clinton (37 percent) and former President Barack Obama (43 percent).

At the cabinet level, Mr. Trump has nominated seven women and 32 men. That’s lower than the eight women who served at cabinet-level positions in Mr. Obama’s first term and 10 in his second term, and the nine who served in Mr. Clinton’s second term.

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Edward Wong
Aug. 25, 2020, 11:21 p.m. ET

“Today, because of President Trump, NATO is stronger, Ukraine has defensive weapons systems and America left a harmful treaty so our nation can now build missiles to deter Russian aggression.”

— Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state

This is false.

President Trump has weakened NATO. His constant criticism of the alliance has generated widespread distrust of Mr. Trump among its European members and questions over the reliability of the United States. European allies are incensed over Mr. Trump’s denunciations of them, and they are aware the American president wants to withdraw from NATO, as several of Mr. Trump’s former senior aides have said.

In this statement, Mr. Pompeo is also trying to portray Mr. Trump as being tough on Russia. The opposite is true. A congressional inquiry last year found that Mr. Trump tried to hold up American weapons shipments to Ukraine, which is fighting against Russia-backed insurgents, in exchange for personal political favors. That resulted in the Democratic-led House of Representatives bringing two impeachment charges against Mr. Trump, though a Republican-led Senate found him not guilty on both counts. Mr. Trump has also praised President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and said he believes Mr. Putin over his own intelligence agencies on Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. elections. And Mr. Trump has said nothing to Mr. Putin about U.S. intelligence findings that Russia offered bounties to Afghan fighters for the killing of American troops, which became public after The New York Times reported on the findings this summer.

Stephanie Saul
Aug. 25, 2020, 11:14 p.m. ET

“President Trump became the first president to talk about the importance of religious freedom at the United Nations, giving hope to people of faith around the world.”

— Melania Trump, first lady

This is false.

Other presidents have addressed the United Nations on the topic of religious freedom, including President Barack Obama in this address.

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Edward Wong
Aug. 25, 2020, 10:58 p.m. ET

“The president lowered the temperature and, against all odds, got North Korean leadership to the table. No nuclear tests, no long-range missile tests and Americans held captive in North Korea came home to their families as did the precious remains of scores of our heroes who fought in Korea.”

— Secretary of State Mike Pompeo

This is partly true.

President Trump did begin high-level diplomatic talks with North Korea. Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea, has not conducted nuclear tests or long-range missile tests since the two first met in Singapore in June 2018.

But national security hawks on North Korea say Mr. Trump’s concessions have weakened Washington’s leverage over Pyongyang and have emboldened Mr. Kim to take aggressive actions that have increased tensions in Asia. They criticize Mr. Trump for his meetings with Mr. Kim and for certain actions of his that have softened the American line on North Korea, including halting large-scale U.S. military exercises with South Korea after the Singapore summit to accede to the wishes of Mr. Kim.

Last year, Mr. Kim stepped up the pace of the testing of short-range missiles, which has worried Japan and South Korea. Mr. Kim has also said he no longer wants to pursue diplomacy with the United States and has denounced the U.S. government’s approach.

Mr. Trump has met with Mr. Kim three times — the only times that an American president has done so with a leader of North Korea since the Korean War — but those talks have done nothing to diminish North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. Experts say North Korea can produce enough fissile material for a nuclear warhead every six months.

Katherine J. Wu
Aug. 25, 2020, 10:47 p.m. ET

The president “has held China accountable for covering up the China virus” and allowing it to “spread death and economic destruction” around the world.

— Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state

This is misleading.

Mr. Pompeo’s comments lack nuance. While it is true that officials in the city of Wuhan — where the coronavirus was first detected — tried to hide information from China’s central leadership, top Chinese officials do not appear to have engaged in deceit about the true threat posed by the virus to the extent portrayed by the Trump administration. The spread of the virus out of China was also a natural consequence of intercontinental travel; entry of the coronavirus into the United States was, ultimately, a repeat affair, with several large outbreaks seeded by individuals returning from Europe, not Asia. And the fault of the subsequent spread of the virus within U.S. borders certainly cannot be pinned on China. In just a few short months, the United States outstripped all other countries in coronavirus case counts — which currently exceed 5.7 million — and has clocked more than 178,000 deaths. China, with a population four times the size of the United States’, has yet to hit 100,000 cases or 5,000 deaths.

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Ana Swanson
Aug. 25, 2020, 10:44 p.m. ET

“He has ended the ridiculously unfair trade arrangement with China that punched a hole in our economy. Those jobs, those jobs are coming back home.”

— Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state

This is exaggerated.

President Trump signed a limited trade agreement with China in January, which was the first such agreement ever signed between the two countries. It opened up China’s financial and agricultural markets and required China to make significant purchases of American products, but it was widely criticized for failing to address structural issues in the Chinese economy that have harmed American workers. As a result, most economists believe the trade pact will have a limited impact on American employment.

Jeanna Smialek
Aug. 25, 2020, 10:42 p.m. ET

“The women’s unemployment rate had plummeted to the lowest level in more than 65 years, and last year, over 70 percent of the new jobs went to women.”

— President Trump

This is true.

Women’s unemployment rate did fall to its lowest levels since the 1950s in 2019 and early 2020, and last year, women accounted for about 1.5 million of the 2.1 million jobs gained — slightly more than 70 percent.

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Thomas Kaplan
Aug. 25, 2020, 10:39 p.m. ET

“Joe Biden has pledged to raise your taxes by $4 trillion. Eighty-two percent of Americans will see their taxes go up significantly.”

— Eric Trump, President Trump’s son

This is misleading.

Mr. Biden has called for increasing taxes on high-earning individuals and on corporations, and his tax proposals would increase federal revenues by $4 trillion over a decade, according to an analysis by the Tax Policy Center in March. About half of that total would come from increased taxes on businesses, and the other half would come from increased taxes on households with high incomes.

Other analyses have made similar projections for how much additional revenue Mr. Biden’s tax plans would generate, so the total figure that Mr. Trump cited is sound. But the tax increases Mr. Biden is proposing would not fall broadly across American households, as Mr. Trump suggested. Mr. Biden is not proposing to directly raise taxes on middle-class households. He reiterated in an interview that aired Sunday on ABC that he would not raise taxes on people who make below $400,000. That said, he wants to increase corporate taxes, and some portion of the burden of corporate taxes falls on workers — though it is debatable how much. The analysis by the Tax Policy Center, which took into account the indirect effects of raising corporate taxes, found that Mr. Biden’s proposals would reduce after-tax incomes across income groups. But the analysis found only a modest effect on most households, with the additional tax burden falling overwhelmingly on the highest earners. Nearly three-quarters of the proposed tax increase would fall on the top 1 percent.

Abby Goodnough
Aug. 25, 2020, 10:27 p.m. ET

“Drug overdose deaths decreased in 2018 for the first time in 30 years. Many of the states hardest hit by the opioid crisis are seeing the largest drop in deaths.”

— Ryan Holets, a police officer in New Mexico

This lacks context.

While overdose deaths did drop by around 5 percent in 2018, the first decrease since 1990, they started rising again last year. The decline was largely explained by reductions in deaths from prescription opioid painkillers, the drugs that started the nation’s addiction epidemic three decades ago. But deaths involving illicit drugs, particularly fentanyl, methamphetamine and cocaine, continued to increase, not just in 2018 but also last year. And preliminary data suggests 2020 could see even more overdose deaths, including in some states where overall drug deaths had started to decline.

President Trump and Congress have provided several billion dollars in grants to states since 2017 for treatment, prevention and recovery services, expanding access to medications that treat opioid addiction in particular. But at the same time, the administration has continued fighting in court to overturn the Affordable Care Act, a law that has allowed states to expand Medicaid and provide free addiction treatment to low-income adults.

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Mike Baker
Aug. 25, 2020, 10:26 p.m. ET

“Biden has pledged to defund the police and take away your cherished Second Amendment.”

— Eric Trump, the president’s son

This is false.

Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. has repeatedly said that he opposes defunding the police and instead has proposed “to get police more money.” He has proposed that federal aid to police departments could be contingent on whether agencies meet certain standards.

Mr. Biden has also said he supports the Second Amendment and is a gun owner himself. But Mr. Biden also argues for a ban on the sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and he supports background checks and other regulations.

Linda Qiu
Aug. 25, 2020, 10:26 p.m. ET

“My father on the other hand, delivered the largest tax cuts in American history.”

— Eric Trump

False.

The president has made this claim dozens of times and it remains false. The $1.5 trillion tax cut, enacted in December 2017, ranks below at least half a dozen others by several metrics. The 1981 Reagan tax cut is the largest as a percentage of the economy and by its reduction to federal revenue. The 2012 Obama cut amounted to the largest cut in inflation-adjusted dollars: $321 billion a year.

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Jeanna Smialek
Aug. 25, 2020, 10:22 p.m. ET

“The economy soared to new heights — heights never seen before. Wages went through the roof. Unemployment reached historic lows, especially for Black Americans, Hispanic Americans and women.”

— Eric Trump, President Trump’s son

This is exaggerated.

By most measurements, it is not true that the economy hit heights it had never seen before under President Trump. Before the pandemic, which sent the economy into a tailspin, overall growth was little changed under his administration — and much slower than the rates it had regularly achieved in the 20th century. The job market was strong, but that was a continuation of trends well underway during President Barack Obama’s administration. For instance, unemployment had continued a yearslong decline — one that started in 2009 — and stood at a half-century low of 3.5 percent in February 2020. It is true that Black American and Hispanic Americans were enjoying record low joblessness before the pandemic, but women actually experienced their lowest unemployment rates in the 1950s.

Linda Qiu
Aug. 25, 2020, 10:14 p.m. ET

“President Trump continues to place strong women into significant positions throughout his administration and campaign, far more than any other president in U.S. history.”

— A video produced for the RNC

This is exaggerated.

Kellyanne Conway, Mr. Trump’s third campaign manager for his 2016 bid, was the first woman to run a winning presidential campaign, and three of his White House press secretaries have been women. But the number of high-ranking women in his administration is not record-breaking.

Of the 877 key executive branch nominees put forth by Mr. Trump for positions that require Senate confirmation, about 27.6 percent have been women. Of the 679 that have been confirmed, about 25 percent have been women.

That’s a lower percentage than the appointments of both former President Bill Clinton (37 percent) and former President Barack Obama (43 percent).

At the cabinet level, Mr. Trump has nominated seven women and 32 men. That’s lower than the eight women who served at cabinet-level positions in Mr. Obama’s first term and 10 in his second term, and the nine who served in Mr. Clinton’s second term.

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Michael D. Shear
Aug. 25, 2020, 10:11 p.m. ET

“Today America rejoices as we welcome five absolutely incredible new members into our great American family.”

— President Trump

That is misleading.

The president’s friendly words about immigrants at the naturalization ceremony stands in stark contrast to almost four years in which he has repeatedly pursued anti-immigrant policies, often fueled by xenophobic language.

The president has largely blocked asylum seekers and refugees fleeing persecution, war and violence. He has built nearly 300 miles of border wall (though without getting Mexico to pay for it). He has made it harder for poor people to immigrate to the United States, imposed travel bans on mostly-Muslim countries, and separated migrant children from their parents at the border.

At times, his has used racist rhetoric, condeming “shithole countries” and complaining that people from Haiti “have AIDS.”

Even as he praised the new citizens on Tuesday, Mr. Trump has long sought to reduce legal immigration into the United States and has recently moved to shrink or eliminate visa programs that allow companies to hire foreigners to work in America. Aides to the president brag about the reductions in overall immigration, saying the efforts are helping to protect Americans from having to compete with immigrants for jobs.

Kenneth P. Vogel
Aug. 25, 2020, 10:10 p.m. ET

Ten days after Hunter Biden joined his father on a trip to China, during which Hunter had meetings with Chinese bankers with whom he was seeking business, “those Chinese Communist bankers approved millions to go to Hunter’s firm” and … “to this day, Hunter controls a 10 percent stake in that firm.”

— Pam Bondi, former attorney general of Florida

This is misleading.

Hunter Biden did in fact travel with his father aboard Air Force Two to China, and Hunter Biden did meet with a Chinese business partner during the trip. Several days after the trip, a Chinese government-linked private equity fund in which Hunter Biden has been involved, BHR Equity Investment Fund Management Co., won a business license from the Chinese government.

Hunter was on the board of the fund when it was formed in late 2013, and he later invested roughly $420,000, giving him a 10 percent stake, after his father had left the vice presidency. But Hunter’s lawyer has said that he has never been paid for his role on the board, and has not profited financially since he began as a part-owner. Hunter left the board in April, according to a letter produced by his lawyer. But as of June, he still owned his stake in the fund, which he was trying to sell. His lawyer did not respond to a request for comment about the status of that effort.

Emily Cochrane
Aug. 25, 2020, 8:46 p.m. ET

“President Trump delivered the largest financial funding package ever to Indian Country. The $8 billion in CARES Act funding to Indian Country was a great start in alleviating the devastating effects that the Covid-19 pandemic has inflicted on our Indian tribes.”

— Myron Lizner, vice president of the Navajo Nation

Mostly True.

While the $8 billion allocated to tribes in the $2.2 trillion stimulus law is considered the largest single sum of aid ever set aside for tribes, Democrats were the primary advocates for providing relief directly to tribes. The original Republican legislation did not include any funding for tribes, and tribal leaders have said that much more support is needed.

It also took months for the aid to reach tribes because federal agencies were largely unaccustomed to dealing with sovereign nations, tribal leaders said, A significant portion of the aid was also tied up in court as tribes questioned how the administration chose to divide the funds across the country, complicating efforts to distribute the money. A federal watchdog is investigating whether a top Interior Department official violated ethics rules when she helped decide how to divide the funds.

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