Fact-Checking Trump’s Speech and More: Night 4 of the Republican National Convention

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

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President Trump making an early appearance on the South Lawn of the White House, where he later accepted the Republican nomination for a second term.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times
  • In accepting his party’s nomination for a second term on the fourth and final night of the Republican National Convention, President Trump mixed a robust defense of his own record with a scathing attack on his Democratic opponent, Joseph R. Biden Jr. During his 70-minute speech from the South Lawn of the White House, he often exaggerated his own accomplishments and skated over his failures while portraying Democrats and Mr. Biden inaccurately.

  • On the pandemic, the president exaggerated the strength of his administration’s response, from the partial travel ban he imposed on China to the supply of personal protective equipment, and he promised a vaccine by the end of the year — if not sooner — despite serious doubts about that timetable among scientists. He also incorrectly characterized a number of Mr. Biden’s positions on the crisis.

  • Mr. Trump twisted positions held by Mr. Biden and Democrats on defunding the police, energy policy and abortion rights, among other issues. And the president claimed to have lived up to his promises on other subjects, like building a border wall, even where the evidence does not back him up.

  • A team of New York Times reporters followed the developments and fact-checked the speakers, providing context and explanation. And we also fact checked the Democratic National Convention.

“The United States has among the lowest case fatality rates of any major country in the world.”

— President Trump

False.

This figure, which calculates the number of people known to have the coronavirus who ultimately die from the disease, is currently just above 3 percent in the United States, putting it in roughly the top third of countries afflicted by the coronavirus.

The United States has the 51st highest observed case fatality rate out of 170 countries, according to Johns Hopkins University, and has the 22nd highest of the 37 countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The United States also has a relatively high death rate when calculated as deaths per capita, registering more than 50 deaths per 100,000 people over the course of the pandemic. That puts the country squarely in the top 10 countries with the most deaths per capita, when excluding countries like Andorra and San Marino, which have had relatively few coronavirus cases. And the U.S. still leads the world in absolute death counts, with more than 180,000 dead as of Thursday evening, according to a New York Times database.

Ana Swanson
Correspondent, Business

“We will go right after China. We will not rely on them one bit. We are taking our business out of China; we are bringing it home. We want our business to come home.”

— President Trump

This is exaggerated.

President Trump has pushed to “decouple” the American economy from China’s, imposing hefty tariffs on Chinese products that have encouraged companies to move their operations. Trade with China fell sharply last year, and Chinese investment in the United States declined. But trade data suggests that most companies that have left China have relocated to other low-cost countries, like Vietnam and Mexico.

Other companies have decided to remain in China despite the tariffs, drawn by China’s enormous consumer market and factory sector. American investment in China actually edged up slightly last year. Most economists and business leaders believe the world’s two largest economies will remain significantly intertwined. And in some industries, the Trump administration has actually worked to strengthen ties between the countries.

Much of the limited trade deal that the president signed with China in January was aimed at opening certain Chinese markets for American business, especially finance and agriculture.

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“We will greatly expand energy development, continuing to remain the number one in the world, and keep America energy independent.”

— President Trump

This is mostly true.

According to the Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the Energy Department, the United States surpassed Russia to become the world’s largest producer of natural gas in 2011. The United States became the world’s largest producer of oil and natural gas combined in 2014. And it surpassed Saudi Arabia in 2018 to become the world’s largest producer of petroleum.

However, the phrase “energy independence” suggests that the United States is not reliant on imported energy sources. In fact, 2019, nearly half the oil consumed by the United States — about 9 million barrels per day — was imported, according to the Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the Energy Department.

“Make no mistake, if you give power to Joe Biden, the radical left will defund police departments all across America.”

— President Trump

This is misleading.

Some cities have been moving to cut police department budgets in recent weeks. Mr. Trump implies here that Mr. Biden is a supporter of such cuts, but Mr. Biden has made clear that he opposes defunding and instead has proposed “to get police more money.” Mr. Biden has also expressed support for the Second Amendment, saying that he himself is a gun owner. Mr. Biden does propose some firearm restrictions, such as a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. He also supports background checks and other regulations.

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“Biden has promised to abolish the production of American oil, coal, shale and natural gas. … These same policies led to crippling power outages in California just last week.”

— President Trump

This is false.

As temperatures rose in California last week, the manager of much of the state’s electric grid called on utilities to cut power to hundreds of thousands of customers. But the state’s energy experts also said that the utilities had plenty of power available and that the blackouts weren’t necessary. California has not banned production of oil and gas, and it is one of the nation’s top 10 oil-producing states.

“Remember this: They spied on my campaign and they got caught.”

— President Trump

This is misleading.

In July 2016, the F.B.I. opened a counterintelligence investigation into Russia’s covert operation to tilt that year’s election in Mr. Trump’s favor, including whether anyone associated with his campaign cooperated with that effort, wittingly or unwittingly.

The F.B.I. used several confidential human informants to approach Trump campaign associates to see what they would say about any advance knowledge of Russia’s hacking and release of Democratic emails. It also wiretapped Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser with ties to Russian intelligence officials; Mr. Page had left the campaign by the time a court approve the warrant, but wiretap orders permit the F.B.I. to look at any older emails in a target’s account.

The purpose of this investigation was to understand the scope and nature of an effort by a foreign adversary to manipulate an American election. Calling it spying on his campaign connotes trying to gain an electoral advantage, but there is no evidence that any information gathered by the inquiry was provided to the Clinton campaign or leaked to affect the vote.

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“We will always, and very strongly, protect patients with pre-existing conditions, and that is a pledge from the entire Republican Party.”

— President Trump

This is misleading.

The Affordable Care Act, signed by Barack Obama in 2010, established protections for Americans with pre-existing health conditions, requiring insurers to sell them the same plans offered to people without prior health problems. Though President Trump often says he supports the idea, he has taken numerous actions that would weaken those protections. He supported legislation early in his term that would have overturned the Affordable Care Act and undermined the comprehensiveness of health benefits. He has expanded the availability of skimpy insurance that does not need to offer plans to people with pre-existing conditions. And his Justice Department is involved in a lawsuit, currently before the Supreme Court, that would overturn the health law in its entirety. The president has provided no details about what policy would replace the health law — and help patients with pre-existing conditions — if he were to prevail in that suit.

“During the Democrat Convention, the words ‘under God’ were removed from the Pledge of Allegiance — not once, but twice. We will never do that. But the fact is, this is where they are coming from.”

— President Trump

The is misleading.

The Democratic National Convention recited the Pledge of Allegiance on all four nights including the words “under God.” So did most of its caucuses, which took place before the prime-time programming. Several smaller meetings — two meetings of the L.G.B.T.Q. Caucus and one gathering of the Muslim Assembly — recited the Pledge of Allegiance omitting the words “under God.”

Earl D. Fowlkes Jr., chairman of the L.G.B.T.Q. Caucus, said the decision to omit the words was made by two separate individuals who were asked to lead the pledge and was not a policy decision. “It was a personal preference,” Mr. Fowlkes said. “I was just as surprised as everyone else.”

But the central programming of the convention featured the entire pledge, complete with “under God,” on each of its four nights. On the first night, Mr. Biden’s grandchildren said the pledge, followed by the convention’s chorus of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” On the second night, a pledge was recited by a diverse group of Americans, as it was again on the third night. On the fourth night, Cedric Richmond Jr., the son of Representative Cedric Richmond, Democrat of Louisiana, said the pledge. Each night, the pledge included the words “under God.”

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“Instead of following the science, Joe Biden wants to inflict a painful shutdown on the entire country.”

— President Trump

This is exaggerated.

Mr. Biden has emphasized the importance of deferring to science when it comes to responding to the coronavirus. In an interview last week, he expressed a willingness to shut down the country if recommended by scientists, but he is not promising a shutdown no matter what.

In the interview, ABC’s David Muir asked Mr. Biden, “If you’re sworn in come January and we have coronavirus and the flu combining, which many scientists have said is a real possibility, would you be prepared to shut this country down again?”

Mr. Biden responded: “I will be prepared to do whatever it takes to save lives, because we cannot get the country moving until we control the virus. That is the fundamental flaw of this administration’s thinking to begin with. In order to keep the country running and moving and the economy growing and people employed, you have to fix the virus. You have to deal with the virus.”

Pressed on what he would do “if the scientists say shut it down,” as Mr. Muir put it, Mr. Biden responded: “I would shut it down. I would listen to the scientists.”

Ana Swanson
Correspondent, Business

“Biden voted for the NAFTA disaster, the single worst trade deal ever enacted. He supported China’s entry into the World Trade Organization, one of the greatest economic disasters of all time. After those Biden calamities, the United States lost 1 in 4 manufacturing jobs.”

— President Trump

This is mostly true.

Mr. Biden did vote to approve the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1993 and supported China’s entry into the World Trade Organization, which occurred in December 2001. Since then, the number of American workers employed in manufacturing shrank from 15.7 million to 12.1 million, a loss of a little less than 1 in 4 jobs.

Many economists believe that the entry of such a massive country as China into the global marketplace created a shock that was responsible for some of this job loss, though many economic studies have found that NAFTA had little to no effect on net American employment. But other major economic trends have also contributed to the shedding of American manufacturing jobs, including increasing automation, globalization and the rise of international supply chains, and the information technology revolution, which allowed companies to separate their operations for designing and manufacturing goods.

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Sheryl Gay Stolberg
Washington Correspondent, Washington

“Joe Biden claims he has empathy for the vulnerable, yet the party he leads supports the extreme late-term abortion of defenseless babies, right up until the moment of birth.”

— President Trump

This is exaggerated.

Democrats support abortion rights, but that does not mean they call for women to have an unfettered right to terminate pregnancies up until the point of birth. Mr. Trump may have been referring to a debate over a bill proposed last year by Democrats in the Virginia legislature that would have made it easier for women to obtain abortions late in pregnancy if the mother’s physical health or safety were at risk.

The proposed legislation prompted Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, to falsely claim that Democrats support “abortion up until the moment of birth and even, horrifically, after that.” Other Republicans have echoed the claim.

Democrats support codifying Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that held states could prohibit abortion after fetal viability — the point at which fetuses can sustain life outside the womb. The current Supreme Court standard holds that states may prohibit abortion after fetal viability so long as there are exceptions for the life and health of the mother.

“Like the majority of Americans, Democrats believe that every woman should be able to access high-quality reproductive health care services, including safe and legal abortion,” the party’s draft 2020 platform states, adding, “Democrats oppose and will fight to overturn federal and state laws that create barriers to women’s reproductive health and rights.”

“When I took bold action to issue a travel ban on China, very early indeed, Joe Biden called it hysterical and xenophobic.”

— President Trump

This is false.

Mr. Biden did not say those words about Mr. Trump’s partial travel ban on China, which was aimed at limiting the spread of the coronavirus in the United States. Mr. Trump announced the ban on Jan. 31. Mr. Biden wrote the next day on Twitter that Mr. Trump has a “record of hysteria, xenophobia, and fear-mongering.” But he did not say that specifically about the travel ban. Mr. Biden’s aides later said he supported travel bans based on science. Mr. Trump did not announce the partial ban “very early” relative to other nations. The United States was in the third wave of nations that enacted some form of travel ban on China in January.

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“Biden has promised to abolish the production of American oil, coal, shale and natural gas.”

— President Trump

This is false.

Mr. Biden has made no such promise, nor do his policy proposals ban production of those energy sources. Mr. Biden’s climate change plan would end new leases for hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, for oil and gas on federal lands, but would not ban existing fracking on public lands or new or existing fracking on private land.

Zolan Kanno-Youngs
Homeland Security Correspondent, Washington

“We have already built 300 miles of border wall, and we are adding 10 new miles every single week. The wall will soon be complete, and it is working beyond our wildest expectations.”

— President Trump

This is exaggerated.

The Trump administration has built roughly 300 miles of new border wall, although nearly all of it is in areas where dilapidated barriers existed or vehicle barriers once stood. The administration is on track to just barely meet Mr. Trump’s mandate of constructing 450 miles of border wall by the end of the year. But much of it will not be in the Rio Grande Valley, an area historically prone to illegal crossings where private landowners have fought in court against the construction project. The border wall is also not working as Mr. Trump promised. Migrants have used power tools to cut through it and ladders to climb over it.

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“Over the past three months, we have gained over 9 million jobs, and that’s a record in the history of our country.”

— President Trump

This is misleading.

It is true that the United States economy gained more than 9 million jobs between April and June, but it had lost more than 20 million between February and April. The bounce-back was rapid in part because many people had been only temporarily laid off as states shut down to control the spread of the coronavirus and were then quickly rehired. It’s an open question how robustly the remaining lost jobs will come back as the recovery progresses.

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