Fact-checking the Democratic convention: What Kamala Harris, others got right (and wrong) Fact-checking the Democratic convention: What Kamala Harris, others got right (and wrong)

 Vice President Kamala Harris, and the several dozen to speak before her, during Thursday's Democratic National Convention blistered former President Donald Trump on everything from abortion to diplomacy to his myriad criminal charges.

  Not all of it was accurate.

 The NookHavenMedia Fact Check team followed along to sort fact from fiction and provide context where it was lacking.

Claim shot: Kamala Harris says Trump tariffs will cost every family $4,000 annually

Trump tariffs "would raise prices on middle-class families by almost $4,000 a year."

This overstates the impact economists project from Trump's proposed 10% tariff on imported goods.

Although Trump has called it a way to raise revenue, economists say it would mostly be passed along to consumers – effectively making it a tax.

A study from the nongovernmental Tax Policy Center estimated that the tariff, along with a 60% tariff on Chinese goods also proposed by Trump, would reduce the after-tax incomes of American households by about $1,800.

That's roughly in line with estimates from the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a think tank which says the tariff would cost households about $1,700 per year, and the conservative American Action Forum, which pegs additional household costs between $1,700 and $2,350.

– Joedy McCreary

Catch up on our convention fact-checks

We fact-checked key speakers throughout the Republican and Democratic conventions. Catch up here on what was false, what was true and what was in between from Donald Trump, JD Vance, Tim Walz and a host of others.

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DNC Day 3: Tim Walz | Fact check live blog
DNC Day 1:Joe Biden | Fact check live blog
RNC Day 4: Donald Trump | Fact check live blog
RNC Day 3: JD Vance | Fact check live blog

Kamala Harris says Trump isn't immune from criminal prosecution

"Consider what power he will wield, especially after the United States Supreme Court just ruled that he would be immune from criminal prosecution."

A July Supreme Court judgment decided 6-3 that presidents, including Trump, cannot be prosecuted for at least some crimes committed while in the presidency. The court's decision is considerably murkier than Harris' remarks suggest, holding only that "official" acts by presidents are protected, not steps taken as candidates.

It also allows for presidents to be prosecuted under a narrow set of circumstances related to responsibilities "within the outer perimeter" of presidential duties or unofficial acts.

"The parties before us do not dispute that a former President can be subject to criminal prosecution for unofficial acts committed while in office," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the 6-3 majority that divided along ideological lines. "They also agree that some of the conduct described in the indictment includes actions taken by Trump in his unofficial capacity."

In an incendiary dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that the court gave Trump "all the immunity he asked for and more." Trump is the first former or current president to face criminal charges.

Claim: Ruben Gallego says VP Harris will take charge of expanding veteran benefits, lowering the unemployment rate

"Kamala Harris has delivered more benefits to more veterans than ever before and has achieved the lowest veterans' unemployment rate in history."

 

According to the VA, it said it has awarded benefits to 1.1 million veterans and their survivors in FY 2024, an all-time record.

"The VA said because of the PACT Act, it could deliver more care and benefits than ever before—an assertion the White House has touted as the 'most significant expansion of VA Health Care in 30 years.'"

The White House said the measure "would provide more timely health care benefits and services to more than 5 million veterans possibly exposed to toxic substances while serving in the country, like from burn pits.".

But it goes too far in directly crediting Harris with actions taken by an administration led by Biden. In public remarks this year, Harris credited Biden's leadership for the passage of the PACT Act. 

The issue hits close to home for Biden: the president himself has linked burn pits to the brain cancer that killed his oldest son, Beau.

On the Department of Veterans Affairs website, the PACT Act is cited as "is perhaps the largest health care and benefit expansion in VA history." According to the Veterans of Foreign Wars - the nonprofit veterans service organization - the bill was the most important piece of veterans legislation in history.

The veteran unemployment rate declined to 2.1% in April 2023 — under the watch of the Biden-Harris administration — the lowest since 2000, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking the group's monthly unemployment, the Military Times reported. For all of 2023, the rate was 2.8%, the lowest rate since at least 2000, the outlet reported.

The unemployment rate for veterans ticked up to 3% in July from 2.9% the month before, according to the Department of Labor. 

But as with the veterans benefits, pointing to said veterans' unemployment rate as something Harris has "done" inflates her role in gearing said efforts. USA TODAY could not locate records that show Harris led any effort that would authorize said characterization. 

- Andre Byik

Kamala Harris claim: Trump plans to create a 'national anti-abortion coordinator,' force reporting on miscarriages and abortions

"He will make a national anti-abortion coordinator and force states to report on women's miscarriages and abortions."

This preceding claim appears not to point to any plan or platform endorsed by Trump but some elements in Project 2025, the political playbook developed by Heritage Foundation and dozens of other right-wing groups.

The bill would require that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention increase its monitoring of abortion data by mandating states—like California, Maryland, and New Hampshire—that do not currently report abortion information to the CDC to start doing so.

Page 455 of the plan describes this would be handled by allowing HHS to "pursue every available option, including the withholding of funds, to ensure that every state reports precisely how many abortions take place within its border, at what gestational age of the child for what reason, the mother's state of residence and by what method." It also requires information related to miscarriages to be gathered from the states. "Naming an unapologetically pro-life Senior Coordinator to run the Office of Women, Children, and Families," he writes, as Harris alluded. 

The claim from Democrats has been that Project 2025 is Trump's plan if elected president. He has tried to remove himself from it.

In an July 5 Truth Social post, Trump claimed he doesn't agree with components of the plan and has "no idea who is behind it." By contrast, as NookHavenMedia previously reported, Trump easily embraced many of the Heritage Foundation's policy proposals during his first administration, and a number of his allies were involved in Project 2025. 

Kamala Harris: Trump tried to cut Social Security and Medicare

"'Donald Trump tried to cut Social Security and Medicare."

This is a slightly softened version of a claim Harris' campaign has made before, including a tweet from her campaign claiming Trump attempted to do this "every single year." It oversimplifies a series of budget maneuvers.

Trump did not attempt to cut general Social Security retirement benefits, although he did attempt—and fail—to cut spending for Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income, according to The Washington Post. About 8.5 million people receive such disability benefits, but that is only a fraction of those receiving retirement or survivor benefits.

The Post noted that Trump did propose cuts to Medicare in his budgets for the fiscal years 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021. An analysis from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget revealed that 85% of the proposed Medicare savings would come from health-care providers and would thus lower costs for seniors.

Trump's final budget, released in February 2020, had about $500 billion in net Medicare spending reductions over 10 years, but most would come from reduced payments to hospitals and other healthcare providers, Forbes reported, citing the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

-Chris Mueller