Fact-checking Kamala Harris's DNC acceptance speech In accepting the Democratic nomination for president, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke about half as long as former president Donald Trump at July's Republican convention — and offered far fewer suspect facts. We assessed 34 claims in Trump's 92-minute speech. We found five claims worthy of note in Harris's speech, including: - "We are not going back to when Donald Trump tried to cut Social Security and Medicare." (Mostly false — Trump didn't try to cut benefits.)
- "He will give them [billionaires] another round of tax breaks that will add up to $5 trillion to the national debt." (Misleading — middle-class Americans would also benefit from an extension of the 2017 tax cut.)
- "He intends to enact what, in effect, is a national sales tax. Call it a Trump tax that would raise prices on middle class families by almost $4,000 a year." (This is a high estimate for the impact of Trump's tariff proposals.)
- "He encouraged [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to invade our allies, said Russia could, quote, do whatever the hell they want." (Trump didn't give a blanket invitation, which is why she uses "encouraged.")
To read the full fact check, please click here. Enjoy this newsletter? Forward it to someone else who'd like it! If this email was forwarded to you, sign up here. Did you hear something fact-checkable? Send it here; we'll check it out. Other claims made at the Democratic convention We also provided detailed fact checks of the first three nights of the convention, looking at a total of 19 claims. Among them: - "Trump was the mastermind of the GOP tax scam, where 83 percent of the benefits went to the wealthiest 1 percent in America." — House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) (This is a Three Pinocchio claim, as the numbers are estimates for 2027, when the law expires.)
- "Since the end of the Cold War in 1989, America has created about 51 million new jobs. I swear I checked this three times. Even I couldn't believe it. What's the score? Democrats 50, Republicans 1." — Former president Bill Clinton. (The numbers add up but it's a cherry-picked fact.)
- "JD Vance says women should stay in violent marriages, and that pregnancies resulting from rape are simply inconvenient."— Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (Vance says his comments have been twisted so we provided the full context.)
- "[We're] removing every lead pipe from schools and homes so every child can drink clean water."— President Joe Biden (He secured $15 billion — and the total estimated cost is $45 billion.)
- "We have a thousand billionaires in America. You know what is their average tax rate they pay? 8.2 percent." — Biden (This is a Two-Pinocchio claim, as Biden's numbers are derived from a hypothetical tax system.)
To read the fact check of the first night, click here. To read the fact check of the second night, click here. To read the fact check of the third night, click here. We're always looking for fact-check suggestions. You can reach us via email, Twitter (@GlennKesslerWP and @AdriUsero) or Facebook. We're also on TikTok. Read about our process and rating scale here, and sign up for the newsletter here. About the cats: It's a Friday and sometimes our fact checks deal with heavy subjects. So we hope to bring a smile to your face. Scroll down to read other fact checks related to the election campaign |
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