GOP vice-presidential nominee J.D. Vance was the headliner on the third night of the GOP convention, which featured a number of misleading or inaccurate statements. Here are nine claims that caught our attention, in the order in which they were made. As is our practice, we do not award Pinocchios for a roundup of statements made during convention events.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour favorite Democrat, Nancy Pelosi, created your favorite committee, the sham January 6th committee, Which demanded that I violate executive privilege. What did I do? I refused.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014 Peter Navarro, former White House director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy<\/p>\n
Navarro spoke at the convention on the same day he completed a four-month prison sentence for defying a congressional subpoena. The Jan. 6 committee had issued him a subpoena to testify about his involvement in efforts to delay the certification of the electoral college vote in the 2020 election. But Navarro never showed up to testify or produce documents. The House, controlled by Democrats, voted to recommend he be charged with contempt of Congress.<\/p>\n
Navarro claimed that his testimony was protected by executive privilege, but a federal judge ruled that there was no evidence that former president Donald Trump had formally invoked the privilege. (Executive privilege is meant to protect the confidentiality of discussions between the president and his close aides.) Navarro produced nothing in writing from Trump, nor did Trump publicly corroborate his account. Even if executive privilege did apply, Navarro was prosecuted for refusing to appear, not for refusing to answer questions.<\/p>\n
By contrast, the U.S. attorney\u2019s office opted not to take legal action against two other Trump officials who were referred for contempt prosecutions \u2014 former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and communications chief Dan Scavino. Both had received letters from a lawyer for the former president directing them not to respond to subpoenas from the committee, citing executive privilege. The judge in the case said the record would look different if Navarro could produce a similar letter.<\/p>\n
\u201cJack Smith indicted and prosecuted me for criminal contempt of Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014 Navarro<\/p>\n
Special counsel Jack Smith, who has filed two criminal cases against Trump, did not prosecute Navarro. The case was filed by U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves of D.C.<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Trump handed Biden a booming economy and a strong nation. All Joe had to do was leave it alone and take a nap.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014 Kimberly Guilfoyle, fianc\u00e9e of Donald Trump Jr.<\/p>\n
The economy was not booming in January 2021. When Biden became president, the United States was in an economic crisis because of the coronavirus pandemic. The unemployment rate was 6.4 percent, and the administration pushed through an economic recovery plan in its first months in office.<\/p>\n
While the Trump administration helped foster the creation of the coronavirus vaccine, it had not left behind much of a national strategy beyond vaccinating health-care workers and people living in long-term care facilities, all of whom were at fixed sites where they could receive vaccines. Trump more than 20 times promised that 100 million doses of vaccine would be delivered by the end of 2020 \u2014 a goal his administration badly failed to meet.<\/p>\n
The Biden administration came up with ways to provide states with resources to deliver vaccines \u2014 which Trump had resisted \u2014 and to prevent states from hoarding doses.<\/p>\n
Biden\u2019s job record in his first three years also tops Trump\u2019s performance. In the first three years of Trump\u2019s term, about 6.5 million jobs were created \u2014 less than half the number created under Biden in the same time period. The number of jobs is now 6.2 million higher than the peak under Trump in February 2020, before the pandemic struck the economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe deterred Russia. You know what he told Putin? You try anything and I\u2019ll take the tops off the Kremlin.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014 Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.)<\/p>\n
Waltz is repeating an unconfirmed report \u2014 which came from Trump himself, in a conversation recorded on speaker phone with golf pro John Daly in March 2022.<\/p>\n
Trump told Daly that Russian President Vladimir Putin \u201cwas a friend of mine\u201d and \u201cI got along great with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
But he insisted that he said that if Putin invaded Ukraine, \u201cwe\u2019re going to hit Moscow.\u201d Trump said: \u201cHe sort of believed me, like 5 percent, 10 percent,\u201d adding, \u201cThat\u2019s all you need. He never did it during my time, John, you know \u2026 He didn\u2019t do this during the last four years because he knew he couldn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump has a long history of inaccurately recounting conversations. The day before Putin\u2019s invasion in February 2022, he called Putin a \u201cgenius\u201d and \u201cvery savvy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou got to say, that\u2019s pretty savvy,\u201d Trump said on a conservative talk radio show of Putin\u2019s decision to declare certain breakaway regions in Ukraine as independent. \u201cAnd you know what the response was from Biden? There was no response. They didn\u2019t have one for that. No, it\u2019s very sad. Very sad.\u201d \u201cThis is genius,\u201d Trump said. \u201cPutin declares a big portion of the Ukraine \u2026 Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that\u2019s wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump also sided with Putin over the U.S. intelligence community in a news conference in Helsinki in 2018, saying he did not believe Russia tried to intervene in the 2016 election. Trump often resisted congressional efforts to sanction Russia and led a charge to weaken NATO and the European Union \u2014 two important goals of Putin\u2019s. He has suggested that he might pull the United States out of NATO if he\u2019s elected to a second term.<\/p>\n
\u201cJoe Biden advised against the mission that killed Osama bin Laden.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014 former congressman Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.)<\/p>\n
The main piece of evidence for this claim is a newspaper headline that The Fact Checker concluded was based on a misinterpretation of what Barack Obama said. The headline, over a brief article in USA Today in 2012, said: \u201cObama notes that Biden opposed Bin Laden raid.\u201d<\/p>\n
The article was about the 2012 debate between Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney. The article says Obama was discussing the 2011 raid on bin Laden\u2019s compound. But the transcript makes clear that Obama talking about criticism he received during his 2008 run, from both Romney and Biden (both presidential candidates at the time), for saying he would go after bin Laden even if the Pakistani government was unwilling to help.<\/p>\n
It is certainly correct that memories of other participants in the White House debate over the bin Laden raid placed Biden in the skeptical camp. Most accounts say that Biden believed more work needed to be done before a raid was launched, such as one more pass with a drone to make certain. That\u2019s different from being against the mission.<\/p>\n
Biden has given various accounts of a private conversation he claims he had with Obama after advisers met on the raid \u2014 saying he told Obama \u201cgo with your gut\u201d or \u201cfollow your instincts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Obama\u2019s memoir describes the Situation Room debate as others have, saying he appreciated Biden\u2019s willingness to offer a contrary viewpoint, but he makes no mention of this supposed conversation with Biden afterward.<\/p>\n
\u201cPro-crime district attorneys have turned our cities into giant crime zones.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014 Donald Trump Jr.<\/p>\n
Violent crime rates, especially for homicide in large cities, have fallen sharply during Biden\u2019s presidency, after a surge during the pandemic. The violent crime rate is believed to be near its lowest level in 50 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cA career politician by the name of Joe Biden supported NAFTA, a bad trade deal that sent countless good jobs to Mexico.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014 GOP vice-presidential nominee J.D. Vance<\/p>\n
The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service in 2017 concluded that the \u201cnet overall effect of the North American Free Trade Agreement on the U.S. economy appears to have been relatively modest, primarily because trade with Canada and Mexico accounts for a small percentage of U.S. GDP,\u201d though it noted that \u201cthere were worker and firm adjustment costs as the three countries adjusted to more open trade and investment among their economies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vance attacks Biden for supporting NAFTA but it was negotiated by President George H.W. Bush and supported more by Republican lawmakers than Democrats.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was a senior in high school, that same Joe Biden supported the disastrous invasion of Iraq. \u2026 Somehow a real estate developer from New York City by the name of Donald J. Trump was right [on the war].\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014 Vance<\/p>\n
Biden supported the Iraq War, but Vance \u2014 who served in Iraq as a Marine \u2014 repeats a signature Trump lie that Trump did not. We searched high and low, as did other reporters, and there is no evidence Trump was an opponent of the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, let alone a vocal one. In fact, he offered lukewarm support. When Howard Stern asked if he supported invading Iraq, Trump replied, \u201cYeah, I guess so. You know, I wish the first time it was done correctly.\u201d In another interview on Fox News, two months before the invasion, he said Bush had to make a decision: \u201cEither you attack or you don\u2019t attack.\u201d Shortly after the invasion, he again told Fox News: \u201cIt looks like a tremendous success from a military standpoint.\u201d Not until August 2004, in an interview with Esquire, did Trump publicly express opposition to the war. By then \u2014 17 months after the invasion \u2014 many Americans had turned against the war, making Trump\u2019s position not particularly surprising.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will make sure our allies share in the burden of securing world peace. No more free rides for nations that betray the generosity of the American taxpayer.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014 Vance<\/p>\n
This is a broad statement but it appears to refer to burden sharing in the war in Ukraine as well as NATO funding, two issues that Trump has complained about.<\/p>\n
As of April 30, European aid to Ukraine far exceeded U.S. aid, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. European nations have allocated $111 billion, compared to $81 billion for the United States. Europe has also pledged an additional $83 billion, which has not been allocated, compared to $27 billion for the United States. As a percentage of the economy, the U.S. percentage ranks much lower than 21 other countries, Kiel estimates.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also important to remember that military aid to foreign countries benefits Americans. The package of aid that passed Congress this year \u2014 not included in the numbers above \u2014 was estimated to cost $95.25 billion, including $60 billion for Ukraine. But information provided by the White House budget office and a detailed review of the bill showed that nearly 80 percent went either to weapons manufacturers in the United States to replenish stocks or supply weapons or to fund Defense Department operations in the United States and overseas (including the training of Ukrainian soldiers). Nearly $57 billion \u2014 about 60 percent \u2014 is never leaving the United States. Instead, these funds are being invested with weapons manufacturers located in dozens of states. Only about $8 billion of this amount is reserved to assist the Ukrainian government, including $50 million to address food shortages.<\/p>\n
So far, according to the Pentagon, manufacturers in all but 11 states have received Ukraine-related weapons contracts.<\/p>\n
As for NATO, since 2014, members have committed to spend at least two percent of their gross domestic product on defense. In 2024, 23 members are expected to meet or exceed the target, compared to only three members in 2014, NATO says.<\/p>\n
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GOP vice-presidential nominee J.D. Vance was the headliner on the third night of the GOP convention, which featured a number of misleading or inaccurate statements. Here are nine claims that caught our attention, in the order in which they were made. As is our practice, we do not award Pinocchios for a roundup of statements […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6265,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}