DNC FACT CHECK - NIGHT 3

Democrats paint a dystopian view of America, offer no solutions

Democrats continue to spin the truth, ignore their own failed records, and play politics with the coronavirus by casting blame. There was little by way of policy last night, only heated rhetoric aimed at Republicans and the Trump Administration, not supported by the facts.

SPIN: Nancy Pelosi claimed President Trump and Republicans delayed coronavirus stimulus, when in fact she and the Democratic Party have held-up much-needed aid several times throughout the coronavirus pandemic, playing politics.

• FACT: In April, Pelosi appeared on a late-night television show in front of her $20,000-plus refrigerator filled with costly ice cream pints while her party blocked the effort to add $250 billion in the pandemic-related small-business loans. Democrats allowed the program to run dry for a week, blocking small business owners from urgent relief. 
• As a result of Democrats' unwillingness to negotiate in good faith, President Trump was prompted to sign a series of executive actions to postpone payroll taxes, increase unemployment benefits, extend student loan relief, and postpone evictions.
• Secretary Mnuchin said: "She [Pelosi] made clear that she was unwilling to meet to continue negotiations unless we agreed in advance to her proposal, costing at least $2 trillion. The Democrats have no interest in negotiating." 

LIE: Former President Barack Obama brazenly said the Trump administration “has shown it will tear our democracy down if that's what it takes to win."

• FACT: The Obama-Biden administration abused the Department of Justice and FBI to spy on the Trump campaign in 2016 and perpetuate the debunked Russia-collusion hoax, in an effort to delegitimize the Trump presidency. An ex-FBI lawyer has pleaded guilty of falsifying a document used to spy on the Trump campaign this month. An inspector general report outlines the weaponization of the Obama-led DOJ against a political foe and there’s an ongoing investigation into it.
• Townhall reported, "If you are conducting surveillance that is not authorized and, in fact, you lied to get the authorization, you are no longer conducting "court-ordered" surveillance."
• In addition to spying on the Trump campaign, during the Obama-Biden years, the IRS was weaponized against tea-party groups, and the DOJ was used to target reporters and block the flow of information to the public.

SPIN: Obama commended Joe Biden for his response to the H1N1 outbreak, "They will get this pandemic under control like Joe did when he helped me manage H1N1 and prevented an Ebola outbreak from reaching our shores."

• FACT: During the 2009 swine flu, Biden exasperated fear causing White House officials to walk back his comments.
• Biden’s former chief of staff Ron Klain admitted last year that the Biden-Obama efforts to secure a vaccine and fight the H1N1 virus were a total disaster. "We did every possible thing wrong. It had nothing to do with us doing anything right,” he said. “It just had to do with luck. It is purely a fortuity that this isn’t one of the great mass casualty events in American history."
• According to Fox News, "During the swine flu pandemic, the Obama administration suddenly told states to shut down their testing, without providing much in the way of explanation. And, Biden's top advisor at the time has acknowledged that the Obama administration didn't do "anything right" to combat that pandemic, before walking back those comments."
• USA Today reported on the depletion of the federal stockpile during the Obama-Biden Administration: "During the presidency of Barack Obama, the national stockpile was seriously taxed as the administration addressed multiple crises over eight years ... There is no indication that the Obama administration took significant steps to replenish the supply of N95 masks in the Strategic National Stockpile after it was depleted from repeated crises. Calls for action came from experts at the time concerned for the country’s ability to respond to future serious pandemics. Such recommendations were, for whatever reason, not heeded."  

SPIN: Obama said "[Joe] will rescue the economy like Joe helped me do after the Great Recession. I asked him to manage the Recovery Act, which jumpstarted the longest stretch of job growth in history."

• FACT: The Biden economic “recovery” was the worst since the Great Depression. It failed to bring back manufacturing jobs, wage growth was stagnant, the middle-class shrunk, 14 million Americans left the workforce, and nearly 800,000 fell into poverty. By 2016, 57 percent of Americans believed the economy was getting worse.
• Biden’s management of the Recovery Act failed to deliver the “shovel ready jobs” he promised and was plagued by taxpayer waste, fraud, and abuse. Remember the $535 million Solyndra disaster?

LIE: Obama said President Trump sown racial divide by not feeling “a sense of responsibility for the safety and welfare of all 330 million of us — regardless of what we look like, how we worship, who we love, how much money we have — or who we voted for.”

• FACT: The Obama-Biden administration did NOTHING by way of criminal justice reform.
• At the end of Biden’s 44 years in office, 69% of Americans – an all-time high– said that race relations were mostly bad.
• The Trump administration worked across the aisle to resolve and amend the consequences of horrendous criminal justice legislation backed by Biden.
• President Trump signed the historic First Step Act to create a fairer justice system and safer communities. 
• The First Step Act enacted programs to promote successful re-entry into society, which reduces recidivism, makes our communities safer, and provides Americans a second chance.
• The President reformed outdated sentencing policies that failed Americans for decades.
  •  Since the First Step Act was signed into law, 90 percent of those who have had their sentences reduced are African American.
• President Trump has promoted second chance hiring to make sure all Americans have the opportunity to succeed and seize the American dream.
  • The Administration is working to expand Pell Grants to provide education and training to inmates and launched an initiative to connect employers with former prisoners.
• President Trump started the Federal Interagency Crime Prevention and Improving Reentry Council to create more opportunities for former inmates.

LIE: Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s running-mate, Kamala Harris asserted that the Trump administration is racist saying, “There is no vaccine for racism.”

• FACT: Joe Biden has a long history of making racially-charged comments to or about Black Americans. He is not a leader that would unify the divides in our country, he would only serve to further marginalize Americans.
• In 2012, Joe Biden told black Americans that Republicans wanted to “put y’all back in chains!”
• Biden said recently that Black people are all the same and lack diversity of thought, unlike Latinos. 
• Biden became agitated when a Black journalist asked if he’d taken a cognitive test. Biden brought up a cocaine test and asked, “Are you a junkie?” 
• Biden told Black Americans earlier this year that if they did not automatically support him, “then you ain’t black.” 
• Biden claimed in 2018 that Republicans were responsible for “Jim Crow sneaking back in.” 
• Biden falsely claimed last year that President Trump’s repeated condemnations of David Duke and white supremacists did not exist.
• In 1977, Biden argued against busing and voiced concerns that his children may grow up “in a racial jungle.”
• Joe Biden pushed the 1994 crime bill which resulted in mass incarceration, life sentences for minor drug offenses, expanded the death penalty to 60 offenses, and as a result Biden was been dubbed, “the architect of mass incarceration”.
  • When asked about the “mess” that was the 1994 crime bill “which put a lot of African-Americans in prison and really destroyed a generation and did a lot of harm to our country” by Betsey Woodruff on a PBS special, Joe Biden laughed

SPIN: Kamala Harris said, “I know a predator when I see one."

• FACT: This would be a lot more believable if she hadn’t come out publicly in support of the women who accused Joe Biden of sexual assault saying, “I believe them and I respect them being able to tell their story and having the courage to do it.”

SPIN: Harris asserted the election is about us – “People of all ages and colors and creeds who are, yes, taking to the streets, and also persuading our family members, rallying our friends, organizing our neighbors, and getting out the vote,” conveniently ignoring the riots and violence that is erupting in major cities across our nation.

• FACT: Yes, some of these protests are peaceful. But many of them have turned violent, with law-enforcement agents being both targeted and injured. As a result of these so-called protests, there’s been a backlash against our men and women in blue - fact that has been ignored throughout the DNC Convention.

SPIN: Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden conveniently filmed their DNC appearances in a school and a library this week, respectively touting Joe Biden’s supposed education plans for America’s children, as they advocate schools remain locked down – regardless of the science, beholden to the teacher’s unions.

• FACT: Studies show that prolonged lockdowns and school closures are detrimental to the growth and development of children both socially and academically; and disadvantaged children are more likely to be impacted. Biden doesn’t seem to care as he continues to bow to special interests who remain opposed to re-opening schools, are demanding limits to remote teaching, and are even opposed to virtual teaching from empty classrooms.
• Joe Biden is in the pocket of the teacher’s unions and in his own words, will do whatever they say if he is elected President.
• Biden has also introduced a platform that could lead to the elimination of charter schools, forcing disadvantaged children into bad schools. The former vice president has been endorsed by the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, two unions that oppose what they call the unaccountable growth of charter schools. 
• President has remained a champion for educational freedom throughout his presidency and has worked to ensure that all children have access to quality education.
• President Trump’s support for the re-opening of schools is based on science, data, and common sense. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has called for the safe reopening of schools this fall and for in-person classes to resume, citing how schools reduce a child’s risk of abuse, drug addiction, and suicide. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has provided comprehensive guidelines to schools on how to protect and identify high-risk individuals, prevent the spread of the virus, and conduct safe in-person teaching.
• The President has called for Congress to pass $105 billion - $70 billion of which is for K-12 schools – to provide financial assistance and incentives to help schools implement safety measures in their resumption of in-person classes.
• President Trump is also calling on Congress to pass the School Choice Now Act, which includes his groundbreaking Education Freedom Scholarships proposal, to give students and families the resources and power to select the right education setting for them.  
• President Trump delivered $13 billion in funding to states to support K-12 education, which can be used to help schools safely reopen.
• The Trump Administration also applauds many States that have utilized Federal CARES Act Coronavirus Relief Fund dollars to prioritize the safe reopening of schools.
• The Trump Administration is also working on a plan to provide millions of reusable face coverings to States for students, teachers, and staff.