Fact-checkers shake their heads at the RNC's 'parade of dishonesty,' 'fire hose of false or misleading' claims

Trump at the RNC
(Image credit: Republican National Committee via Getty Images)

"The first night of the 2020 Republican National Convention was a fire hose of false or misleading claims, mostly drawn from President Trump’s arsenal of falsehoods," The Washington Post fact-checker team reported Monday night, focusing on a modest 19 such claims. The Associated Press concentrated on Trump's "dizzying array of misleading claims about voting fraud and health care," both pre-existing conditions and the COVID-19 pandemic.

"At times," The New York Times reports, "the speakers and prerecorded videos appeared to be describing an alternate reality: one in which the nation was not nearing 180,000 deaths from the coronavirus; in which Mr. Trump had not consistently ignored serious warnings about the disease; in which the president had not spent much of his term appealing openly to xenophobia and racial animus; and in which someone other than Mr. Trump had presided over an economy that began crumbling in the spring."

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.