Fact-checking the last night of the RNC

Facts First: This needs context. As of August 7, some 275 miles of barriers had been constructed on the US border with Mexico — but just 5 of those miles were erected in places where no barriers had existed before, according to official statistics provided to CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez by US Customs and Border Protection.

Of the remainder, 245 miles were erected in place of old barriers, while 25 miles of new “secondary wall” were erected to fortify primary barriers.

The Trump-era replacement barriers are often much larger than the older ones they are replacing. But still, it’s worth noting that Trump has not erected 300 miles of wall where no barriers existed before.

— Daniel Dale

NATO alliance

Trump claimed NATO members had agreed to pay $130 billion more a year.

Facts First: NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg explained during a meeting with Trump on December 3, 2019, that by the end of 2020 non-US NATO members would have added a total of $130 billion to their defense budgets since 2016, not $130 billion per year.

This figure does not take into account the possible impact of the current pandemic, NATO spokeswoman Peggy Beauplet noted in an email to CNN on Thursday morning.

-Daniel Dale

Child care costs

First daughter Ivanka Trump claimed that the Trump administration had lived up to promises to make child care more affordable and accessible by boosting child tax credits as part of the 2018 tax overhaul.

“As part of Republican tax cuts in 2019 alone, our child tax credit put over $2,000 into the pockets of 40 million American families,” she said.

However, the tax overhaul bill also denied the full $1,000 child tax credit increase for more than 26 million children in low-and moderate-income families — those whose earnings are so low they owe little or no federal taxes — according to Chuck Marr, senior director of federal tax policy at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal-leaning think tank. Their analysis is here.

— Anneken Tappe

Trump’s finances

Outlining reasons why Americans should vote for Trump, White House social media director Dan Scavino said, “You know the President cannot be bought.”

Facts First: Trump has refused to release his tax returns, preventing the public from gaining a clear picture of his financial interests — including details of any outstanding debts.

Trump is the first President since Watergate not to divest his business interests while in office and the first President in decades not to release his tax records, which would offer the public a truer picture of his income and net worth.

His annual financial disclosures, which are self-reported and are not vetted by federal ethics officials, give only a veiled view into the President’s finances.

— Tara Subramaniam and Maegan Vazquez

Violent crime

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani claimed that violent crime has been increasing at percentages unheard of in the past.

“New York City once described as America’s crime capital, had become by the mid-1990s, America’s safest large city,” Giuliani said, blaming current New York Mayor Bill De Blasio. “Murders, shootings, and violent crime are increasing at percentages unheard of in the past. We’re seeing the return of rioting and looting.”

Facts First: While there have been significant increases in the rates of murder, shootings, robberies and grand larceny of automobiles in New York to date in 2020 compared to the same period in 2019, violent crime rates in every major crime category tracked by NYPD are down significantly since Giuliani was mayor.

According to the NYPD’s stats, the rates of seven major felony offenses have dropped 290 percent since Giuliani was in office.

There’s been 259 murders in New York in 2020 so far this year. In the last two years — of Giuliani’s mayorship (2000 and 2001) there were 673 and 649 respectively.

Giuliani saw significant rates of crime drop during his time as mayor, but those drops have largely continued since he left office and remain significantly lower than when Giuliani was in office.

— Paul Murphy

Green New Deal

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell criticized Democrats for wanting to pass more regulations, including suggesting that Democrats want to tell Americans “how many hamburgers you can eat.”

Facts First: This is a clear exaggeration. Democrats have not called for limiting how many hamburgers Americans can eat. Sen. Kamala Harris of California, Biden’s running mate, has said she would support changing dietary guidelines, a far cry from mandating what people can eat.

When asked if she would support changing dietary guidelines to reduce the consumption of red meat, Harris said she would, but that “the balance that we have to strike here, frankly, is about what government can and should do around creating incentives.”

“I love cheeseburgers from time to time,” she added.

The New York Democrat’s staff later walked back the document, but Republicans have focused on the “cow farts” line.

— Katie Lobosco

Gun rights

McConnell claimed, speaking of Democrats, “They want to … take away your Second Amendment rights.”

For instance, the Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, has proposed to “end our gun violence epidemic and respect the Second Amendment, which is limited.”

Along with banning the “manufacture and sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines,” Biden’s plan includes mandating that people who own assault weapons either sell them to the federal government or properly register them with the authorities, along with other measures.

Democrats certainly support more strict gun control measures than Republicans.

— Holmes Lybrand

Immigration

Facts First: This is false.

Democratic congressional leaders and the presidential candidates who were running for the Democratic nomination at the time of Van Drew’s party switch — including eventual nominee Joe Biden — simply did not and do not support completely unrestricted migration.

— Daniel Dale

ISIS

Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton said, “Joe Biden let ISIS terrorists rampage across the Middle East. President Trump eliminated ISIS’s leader — and destroyed its caliphate.”

Though the caliphate was indeed established under the Obama administration, Obama and Biden also presided over significant progress in retaking that territory.

— Daniel Dale

This is a breaking story and will be updated.