On the first night of the 2024 Republican National Convention, some speakers offered false and misleading assessments of employment, tax cuts, inflation and more.
- Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said that “hundreds of thousands of American-born workers lost their jobs these past few years” under Democrats, ignoring that, on net, employment of native-born workers increased under President Joe Biden.
- Sen. Katie Britt said that under Biden, Americans have the “tough choice” of choosing “which second job to take just to pay the bills,” and she suggested that wasn’t the case under former President Donald Trump. As a share of the employed population, the percentage of people working multiple jobs under Biden is nearly identical to what it was under Trump.
- A rule proposed by the Biden administration in 2023 would prohibit blanket bans on transgender athletes, but contrary to claims made by Sen. Ron Johnson and Rep. John James, the rule would allow exceptions for competitive fairness, particularly for high school and college sports teams.
- Sen. Marsha Blackburn incorrectly claimed that the Trump-era tax cut was “the largest tax cut in American history.” She claimed Biden would “let them expire,” but the president has vowed not to raise taxes on those earning less than $400,000.
- A few speakers wrongly said that the U.S. had the “greatest” or “strongest” economy under Trump, as the former president himself has often said.
- Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Rep. Byron Donalds said inflation had been “unleashed” or “created” by the Biden administration. Economists say the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic is the primary culprit for higher inflation.
- Greene misleadingly claimed that the “establishment in Washington … gave us Transgender Visibility Day on Easter Sunday.” For years, the day has been on March 31, which also happened to be Easter this year.
- Blackburn misleadingly claimed that Democrats hired “85,000 new IRS agents to harass hard-working Americans.” Most of those hires would replace outgoing workers and be in customer service, government officials said.
The convention kicked off on July 15 and will wrap up on July 18 with Trump accepting his party’s nomination less than a week after an assassination attempt on his life. We’ll monitor the speeches each night.
