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

(Image credit: Republican National Committee via Getty Images)

last updated 25 August 2020

"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."

And the "parade of dishonesty" from the RNC speakers stood "in stark contrast with last week's Democratic convention," CNN's fact-check team wrote. "While CNN also watched and fact-checked the Democrats, those four nights combined didn't have the number of misleading and false claims made on the first night of the Republicans' convention." One member of the CNN team, Daniel Dale, tweeted that the RNC's first night has been "exponentially more dishonest than the entire four nights of the Democratic convention," and "it's important for objective journalists to note how wildly imbalanced the dishonesty is between the current parties."

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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.

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