Fact-checking Democrats’ claims at the 2024 Democratic National Convention

In dozens of speeches this week, Democratic leaders have drawn a sharp contrast between how Kamala Harris and Donald Trump would govern. For context to some of what’s been said at the party’s convention in Chicago, Geoff Bennett speaks with PolitiFact’s Katie Sanders.
Geoff Bennett:
In dozens of speeches, Democratic leaders have drawn a sharp contrast between how Kamala Harris and Donald Trump would govern.
We’re going to add context to some of what we have heard in Chicago.
And for that, we’re joined by political editor in chief Katie Sanders. Thanks so much for being here.
Katie Sanders, Editor in Chief, PolitiFact: Happy to do it. Thanks for having me.
Geoff Bennett:
So let’s start with what we heard from former President Bill Clinton.
Last night, he said that Democrats have created 50 times more jobs than Republicans.
Bill Clinton, Former President of the United States: Since the end of the Cold War in 1989, America has created about 51 million new jobs.
(Cheering)
(Applause)
Bill Clinton:
I swear I checked this three times. Even I couldn’t believe it. What’s the score? Democrats 50, Republicans one.
Geoff Bennett:
So he says he checked it three times. Was he right?
Katie Sanders:
He is right on the numbers, but there’s extra context that’s needed.
So we rated this mostly true. So the numbers are accurate. Democratic presidents have benefited from significantly more job gains going back to that precise 1989 starting point. You have to listen to that. That omits the — any job gains that we’re seeing during the Reagan years, right?
But I think the extra context is that we would want viewers to know presidents are not all-powerful. It’s not as if it’s all the work. President — former President Clinton might want to share some of that credit with the Republican-led Congress that governed legislatively while he was in office.
So there’s some squishiness there. If you go back even further, the Democrats still have a jobs gain. It’s about 70 percent going back to the Eisenhower years until now. Republicans have a smaller gain. But I think the big thing to know is that Democratic presidents have overseen economic recoveries.
And that’s really just a stroke of bad luck in some cases for the Republican presidents who lost jobs.
Geoff Bennett:
All right, let’s fact-check what we heard from Pete Buttigieg about crime numbers under the Trump administration.
Pete Buttigieg, U.S. Secretary of Transportation: Donald Trump rants about law and order, as if he wasn’t a convicted criminal running against a prosecutor.
(Cheering)
(Applause)
Pete Buttigieg:
As if we were going to forget that crime was higher on his watch.
Geoff Bennett:
All right, so was crime higher during the Trump era?
Katie Sanders:
This is one of those quintessential lines that is very broad that we have been hearing from speakers this week. We rated this claim half-true.
So violent crime did spike in 2020. That coincided with the pandemic, with George Floyd protests, but it was a very notable spike for violent crime. But Pete Buttigieg was being broad here. He said crime. And if you look at property crime, it actually went up in 2022 under President Biden.
So it’s more complex than he’s letting on. But, generally, it did see an increase during the Trump years compared to now.
Geoff Bennett:
Another key issue has been the conservative Heritage Foundation’s policy road map known as Project 2025. And among the claims, speakers have said that Project 2025 would increase taxes on the middle class, eliminate the Department of Education, require reporting of miscarriages to the government, and make it easier to fire civil service employees.
What did your fact-check find?
Katie Sanders:
We have heard those again and again this week. I think the ones that are more straightforward are about civil servants and about closing the Department of Education.
Project 2025 does say that. We would say that’s true. And more or less, President — former President Trump shares the perspective. That’s also what he wants to see, which isn’t always the case when you have heard these speakers warn about Project 2025.
As far as like the broad tax increase, I thought that was interesting. We heard Kamala Harris on the campaign trail talk about how this plan would increase taxes on middle-class families by $3,900. People might hear that and be like, oh, no.
It’s not a tax increase. It correlates with Trump’s 10 percent tariff idea that he’s been proposing, which would have an effect and raise the cost of a lot of everyday items. But $3,900 is very specific. It’s also higher than any other estimate we have seen from groups that study this kind of thing. So I would say that seems exaggerated for now.
As far as counting miscarriages, the plan does call out current abortion data collection practices. It’s voluntary. Some states like California don’t participate. And Project 2025 says they want to know more about the number of spontaneous miscarriages that are happening in state hospitals, in addition to abortions and other types of data.
So it does call for that data collection, but that is not exactly what we heard on stage.
Geoff Bennett:
You were with us at the Republican National Convention as well. When you compare the RNC to the DNC, which gathering has shown the greatest fidelity to the facts?
Katie Sanders:
Certainly, there’s been some exaggerations this week about — or maybe really broad claims.
But I think it’s hard to compare anyone with the amount of falsehoods that you hear at a campaign rally from former President Trump. If you remember his speech, we were doing a lot of fact-checking in the moment of things we have heard again and again and again. So I think that is challenging to stack up against any other gathering really for the facts.
With Kamala Harris’ speech tonight, I’m curious if she’s going to continue a trend to stay broad, stay a little vague, narrow — focus more on her biography, versus going into specific claims. We will just have to see. Her campaign speeches have not had a similar style, to say the least, as former President Trump.
Geoff Bennett:
OK, Katie Sanders of PolitiFact, thanks so much.
Katie Sanders:
Thank you.
Geoff Bennett:
And you can see more fact-checks from this week’s Democratic National Convention and from the ongoing presidential race online at PBS.org/NewsHour.