Fact-checking the Republican National Convention

After a Democratic National Convention that fact-checkers found little to quibble about, on Monday night "President Donald Trump made a dizzying array of misleading claims about voting fraud and health care Monday as fellow Republicans opened their convention with speeches distorting the agenda of his Democratic rival, Joe Biden," Hope Yen of The Associated Press reports. "Trump falsely asserted that he was the one who ensured that people with preexisting medical problems will be covered by health insurance; actually that was Democratic President Barack Obama. Several speakers accused Biden of proposing to defund police, ban fracking, take over health care and open borders — none of that true."

Trump said the Republicans had "very strongly" protected the ability of people with pre-existing conditions to obtain health insurance. That is not so; President Obama's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act protects that right, and Trump is trying to dismantle the act, AP reports. Click here for more fact-checking from AP.

Many fact-checkers said speakers painted a misleading picture of Trump's response to the coronavirus. The Fact Checker in The Washington Post  and NBC News both began by picking apart Donald Trump Jr.'s general description and specific assertions about the president's handling of the coronavirus. 

The Post questioned the credit given to Trump for the economy before the pandemic hit, Nikki Haley's assertions about North Korea, Rep. Matt Gaetz's claims about Trump's reluctance to put and keep troops overseas, and party Chair  Ronna McDaniel's misleading statements about taxes and abortion. NBC fact-checked several of those assertions and others, about Biden wanting to "abolish suburbs" and Democrats wanting to defund the police.