The Democratic National Convention on Wednesday saw few false or misleading claims, with speakers focusing on factual statements, thematic rhetoric, personal stories, and uncheckable predictions. However, there were two false claims made regarding Project 2025, a conservative initiative. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis inaccurately stated that the initiative referred to only a married mother and father as a legitimate family. This claim was debunked as false by fact-checkers, including the Heritage Foundation itself, which is associated with the initiative.
Project 2025 emphasizes the importance of the traditional married “nuclear” family but does not claim that this is the only legitimate family structure. While it does advocate for the traditional family unit, it does not disparage families with working mothers or single parents. Additionally, the document criticizes certain policies of the Biden administration but does not make definitive statements on what constitutes a legitimate family.
Speakers at the convention continued to criticize Project 2025, linking it to former President Donald Trump. However, the claim that Trump wrote the initiative is false. While many former administration officials were involved in creating the policy document, there is no evidence that Trump himself authored it. Trump has expressed mixed opinions on the document, calling some aspects “absolutely ridiculous and abysmal” while finding others acceptable.
Former President Bill Clinton highlighted the job creation under Democratic administrations since the end of the Cold War, noting that 50 million out of 51 million jobs were created during Democratic administrations. This claim is true based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data, though it does not account for economic cycles or external factors that influence job growth. Clinton’s data point also overlooks national crises such as the dot-com bubble, 9/11, the Great Recession, and the Covid-19 pandemic.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries made a claim about the GOP tax cut law under former President Trump benefiting the wealthiest 1% of Americans. While the claim that 83% of the benefits went to the top 1% is inaccurate in the current context, it was a projection for the future in 2017. The Tax Policy Center estimated that the top 1% would receive around 25% of the benefits in 2025, which is still a significant portion but far from the 83% initially projected. Jeffries’ claim lacked context in its presentation of the data.
