Fact-checking Day 3 of the 2024 Republican National Convention

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.

“Your 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.”

— Peter Navarro, former White House director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy

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.

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.

By contrast, the U.S. attorney’s office opted not to take legal action against two other Trump officials who were referred for contempt prosecutions — 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.

“Jack Smith indicted and prosecuted me for criminal contempt of Congress.”

— Navarro

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.

“President Trump handed Biden a booming economy and a strong nation. All Joe had to do was leave it alone and take a nap.”

— Kimberly Guilfoyle, fiancée of Donald Trump Jr.

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.

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 — a goal his administration badly failed to meet.

The Biden administration came up with ways to provide states with resources to deliver vaccines — which Trump had resisted — and to prevent states from hoarding doses.

Biden’s job record in his first three years also tops Trump’s performance. In the first three years of Trump’s term, about 6.5 million jobs were created — 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.

“He deterred Russia. You know what he told Putin? You try anything and I’ll take the tops off the Kremlin.”

— Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.)

Waltz is repeating an unconfirmed report — which came from Trump himself, in a conversation recorded on speaker phone with golf pro John Daly in March 2022.

Trump told Daly that Russian President Vladimir Putin “was a friend of mine” and “I got along great with him.”

But he insisted that he said that if Putin invaded Ukraine, “we’re going to hit Moscow.” Trump said: “He sort of believed me, like 5 percent, 10 percent,” adding, “That’s all you need. He never did it during my time, John, you know … He didn’t do this during the last four years because he knew he couldn’t.”

Trump has a long history of inaccurately recounting conversations. The day before Putin’s invasion in February 2022, he called Putin a “genius” and “very savvy.”

“You got to say, that’s pretty savvy,” Trump said on a conservative talk radio show of Putin’s decision to declare certain breakaway regions in Ukraine as independent. “And you know what the response was from Biden? There was no response. They didn’t have one for that. No, it’s very sad. Very sad.” “This is genius,” Trump said. “Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine … Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful.”

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 — two important goals of Putin’s. He has suggested that he might pull the United States out of NATO if he’s elected to a second term.

“Joe Biden advised against the mission that killed Osama bin Laden.”

— former congressman Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.)

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: “Obama notes that Biden opposed Bin Laden raid.”

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’s 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.

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’s different from being against the mission.

Biden has given various accounts of a private conversation he claims he had with Obama after advisers met on the raid — saying he told Obama “go with your gut” or “follow your instincts.”

Obama’s memoir describes the Situation Room debate as others have, saying he appreciated Biden’s willingness to offer a contrary viewpoint, but he makes no mention of this supposed conversation with Biden afterward.

“Pro-crime district attorneys have turned our cities into giant crime zones.”

— Donald Trump Jr.

Violent crime rates, especially for homicide in large cities, have fallen sharply during Biden’s presidency, after a surge during the pandemic. The violent crime rate is believed to be near its lowest level in 50 years.

“A career politician by the name of Joe Biden supported NAFTA, a bad trade deal that sent countless good jobs to Mexico.”

— GOP vice-presidential nominee J.D. Vance

The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service in 2017 concluded that the “net 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,” though it noted that “there were worker and firm adjustment costs as the three countries adjusted to more open trade and investment among their economies.”

Vance attacks Biden for supporting NAFTA but it was negotiated by President George H.W. Bush and supported more by Republican lawmakers than Democrats.

“When I was a senior in high school, that same Joe Biden supported the disastrous invasion of Iraq. … Somehow a real estate developer from New York City by the name of Donald J. Trump was right [on the war].”

— Vance

Biden supported the Iraq War, but Vance — who served in Iraq as a Marine — 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, “Yeah, I guess so. You know, I wish the first time it was done correctly.” In another interview on Fox News, two months before the invasion, he said Bush had to make a decision: “Either you attack or you don’t attack.” Shortly after the invasion, he again told Fox News: “It looks like a tremendous success from a military standpoint.” Not until August 2004, in an interview with Esquire, did Trump publicly express opposition to the war. By then — 17 months after the invasion — many Americans had turned against the war, making Trump’s position not particularly surprising.

“We 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.”

— Vance

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.

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.

It’s also important to remember that military aid to foreign countries benefits Americans. The package of aid that passed Congress this year — not included in the numbers above — 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 — about 60 percent — 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.

So far, according to the Pentagon, manufacturers in all but 11 states have received Ukraine-related weapons contracts.

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.

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