CNN
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For the second night in a row, false or misleading claims were few and far between at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday, with speakers tending to stick to factual statements, thematic rhetoric, personal stories and unverifiable predictions.
But two false claims about Project 2025, a conservative think tank initiative, have been at the center of Democrats’ attacks.
Below is a fact-check of those claims, as well as two other statements made by speakers on Wednesday.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis joined other speakers at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday in criticizing Project 2025, an effort by dozens of conservative groups led by the Heritage Foundation think tank to lay the foundations for the next Republican president.
After holding up what appeared to be a copy of the 920-page Project 2025 policy document called “A Mission to Leadership,” Polis said: “Page 451 says the only legitimate family is a married mother and father, with only the father working.”
Facts First: Polis’s assertions are false. While Project 2025 policy documents assert the importance of “nuclear” families consisting of a married mother and father, they do not state that these are the only “legitimate” families, nor do they state that families with working mothers are illegitimate. Polis’ inaccurate assertions are synonymous with online memes that were debunked last month by Snopes, USA Today and others.
Mary Vaught, vice president of strategic communications at the Heritage Foundation, told CNN in a message Wednesday night, “As a working mother myself, I know this assertion is simply a lie. The leadership mandate says nothing about which families are ‘legitimate.’ If you actually read the pages cited by Gov. Polis, you’ll see that.”
What page 451 actually says
It is true that Project 2025 prioritizes a particular type of family: a married “nuclear family” with a mother and a father. In the pages Polis referenced, the document asserts that “families consisting of a married mother, father, and their children are the foundation of a well-ordered state and a healthy society,” that “working fathers are essential to the well-being and development of their children,” and that “homes with unrelated ‘boyfriends’ are among the most dangerous places for children to be.”
The same page of the document criticizes the Biden Administration’s Department of Health and Human Services for “focusing on LGBTQ+ equality, subsidizing single mothers, disincentivizing work, and punishing marriage,” and says, “These policies should be repealed and replaced with policies that support the formation of stable, married nuclear families.” (This fact check does not address the accuracy of Project 2025’s own claims.)
But the page doesn’t say there’s only one kind of “legitimate” family, as Polis claims, or even that families with working mothers are ineligible.
Daniel Dale of CNN
On the third night of the Democratic National Convention, speakers continued to attack Project 2025, an effort by dozens of conservative groups led by the Heritage Foundation think tank to lay the policy foundations for the next Republican president.
The initiative has produced a 920-page document called “Mandate for Leadership,” proposing a range of right-wing policy changes and sweeping reforms to the executive branch that would significantly increase the president’s powers.
“He was talking out loud with his friends about the quiet parts. And not only did he say them out loud, he wrote a book about it. What was it called? ‘Project 2025’,” Delaware Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, a Senate candidate, said Wednesday about former President Donald Trump.
Facts First: The claim that Trump “wrote” Project 2025 is false. There is no evidence that Trump was personally involved in writing the Project 2025 policy document, much less that it was his own “book.” Trump is not listed as an author, editor, or contributor to the document, but dozens of people who served in his Administration are.
CNN reported in July that at least 140 people who worked in the Trump administration were involved with Project 2025, including more than half of the people listed as authors, editors or contributors to the policy document. But there is a big difference between pointing out that Trump has extensive ties to Project 2025 and alleging that Trump actually wrote it.
Project 2025 spokesman Noah Weinrich said in a message to CNN Wednesday night that “Project 2025 is not affiliated with any candidates, and no candidate was involved in drafting the leadership mission statement released by the Heritage Foundation in April 2023.”
Trump called parts of the document “absolutely ridiculous and awful” but said “a lot of it is fine,” without specifying which proposals he would reject or which he would accept.
Daniel Dale of CNN
Former President Bill Clinton noted the jobs created in the United States “since the end of the Cold War in 1989,” saying that of the 51 million jobs added, 50 million were created during Democratic administrations.
“Since the end of the Cold War in 1989, America has created almost 51 million new jobs. I checked it three times and I couldn’t believe it myself. The result? 50 Democrats, 1 Republican,” Trump said in a speech at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday.
Facts First: Clinton’s claim is true, although factors like timing, rounding, and a major national crisis affect the calculation.
First, it depends on when the clock starts: Between January 1989 and July 2024, the U.S. economy added 51.825 million net jobs, according to seasonally adjusted data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Adding up the monthly employment totals for each presidential administration starting in February, Democratic administrations added 50.281 million jobs and Republican administrations added 1.544 million jobs (including a net gain of 263,000 in January 1989, the end of Republican President Ronald Reagan’s term). If a presidential term begins in January, the totals are slightly different (49.985 million for Democratic presidents and 1.84 million for Republican presidents).
But presidential terms don’t begin or end in a vacuum, and economic cycles can continue regardless of party affiliation. Moreover, the ups and downs of the labor market and broader economy are influenced by factors other than any one president (although certain economic policies can affect the economy and job growth).
Clinton’s data points also don’t include crucial external events like the dot-com bubble, 9/11, the Great Recession and the coronavirus pandemic. These national crises and respective economic downturns were accompanied by widespread, sometimes massive, unemployment.
Alicia Wallace of CNN
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Wednesday made a point that many Democrats, including President Joe Biden, have made for years.
“Trump was the mastermind behind the Republican tax cut scam, which went 83 percent of the benefits to the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans,” Jeffries said in a speech at the Democratic National Convention, referring to former President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cut law.
Facts first: Jeffries’ argument requires some context. It is not true that the top 1% of taxpayers have already received 83% of the tax cut benefits since President Trump signed the tax cut bill in late 2017. Rather, that 83% figure is a 2017 estimate by the Tax Policy Center think tank of what percentage of future benefits the top 1% of taxpayers would receive in 2027 if the law’s individual tax cuts (which were designed to be temporary) were to expire without being extended at the end of 2025, and the corporate tax cuts (which were designed to be permanent) were to continue.
While both personal and corporate tax cuts are in place, the breakdown of benefits varies widely: The Tax Policy Center estimated in 2017 that the top 1% of taxpayers would receive about 25% of benefits in 2025. That’s still a very large share, but it’s far from 83%.
Daniel Dale of CNN
