Evaluating Truthfulness during Night Three of the Democratic Party's Convention
Here's a list of fact-checks from CNN's Facts First team, which we'll update throughout the night.
Colorado governor makes incorrect assertion about Project 2025
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis joined various speakers at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday to criticize Project 2025, a project by numerous conservative organizations, led by the Heritage Foundation think tank, to establish the blueprint for the upcoming Republican presidency.
During his speech, Polis claimed that Project 2025's 920-page policy document, titled "Mandate for Leadership," states on page 451 that the "only legitimate family" is a married mother and father, where the father is the sole breadwinner.
Fact Check: Polis' statement is inaccurate. While the Project 2025 policy document emphasizes the importance of the "nuclear" family consisting of a married mother and father, it does not categorically classify it as the "only legitimate" family or label families with working mothers as "illegitimate." Polis' claim mirrors an online myth that was debunked by Snopes, USA Today, and others last month.
In response, Mary Vought, the Heritage Foundation's vice president of strategic communications, told CNN that Polis' allegation was false and that the document does not make any such claim regarding the legitimacy of families.
What Page 451 Really Says
It is accurate that the Project 2025 policy document prefers the traditional family – a married mother, father, and their children. On the requested page, the document asserts that families comprised of a married mother, father, and their children form the foundation of a well-ordered nation and healthy society; that working fathers are essential for the well-being and development of their children; and that homes with non-family residents, such as unrelated boyfriends, can be harmful to children.
Furthermore, the same page of the document criticizes the Biden administration's Department of Health and Human Services for focusing on LGBTQ+ equity, subsidizing single mothers, discouraging employment, and penalizing marriage. It then suggests that policies favoring stable, married, nuclear families should replace those promoted by the Biden administration.
However, the page does not declare, as Polis stated, that only one type of family is "legitimate," nor does it suggest that families with working mothers are in any way "illegitimate."
Courtesy of CNN's Daniel Dale
Congresswoman erroneously accuses Trump of writing Project 2025
During the third night of the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday, speakers continued to denounce Project 2025, a project aimed at laying out policy guidelines for the next Republican presidency, led by the Heritage Foundation think tank and numerous other conservative organizations.
The "Mandate for Leadership," a 920-page document, outlines a range of conservative policy suggestions and proposes a major overhaul of the executive branch to increase presidential authority.
Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware, who is also running for the U.S. Senate, misrepresented Trump's involvement with Project 2023 by stating, "He has with his friends said the quiet parts out loud – but not only said it out loud, he wrote a book about it. What's it called? Project 2025."
Fact Check: The claim that Trump authored Project 2025 is unfounded. There is no evidence suggesting that Trump contributed to the writing of the policy document, which was never advertised as his personal "book." He is not among the document's listed authors, editors, or contributors, despite numerous Trump administration officials being included in those categories.
CNN reported in July that at least 140 individuals who worked in the Trump administration helped draft Project 2025, including more than half of its authors, editors, and contributors. However, this information does not support the notion that Trump personally wrote the document.
Noah Weinrich, a Project 2025 spokesperson, confirmed that the organization is unaffiliated with any candidate and that no candidate was involved in the document's drafting.
Trump stated that some of the document's proposals were "absolutely ridiculous and abysmal," while other parts he found acceptable. He did not specify which parts he approved or rejected.
Courtesy of CNN's Daniel Dale
Jeffries' contention regarding Trump's tax cuts
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries leveled a claim on Wednesday that has been repeated by numerous Democrats, including President Joe Biden.
In his remarks at the Democratic National Convention, the New York Democrat insisted that Trump's 2017 tax cut law primarily benefited the wealthiest 1% of Americans, with 83% of the advantages going to that demographic.
Fact Check: Jeffries' claim has been debated for years, and while it might have some truth to it, a more accurate representation of the tax cut's distribution would be to state that approximately 20% of the benefits went to the bottom 60% of income earners, while around 80% went to the top 40%. These figures were calculated and presented by the Tax Policy Center, an independent tax policy research organization.
Organizations like the Tax Foundation and the Joint Committee on Taxation also support the idea that the tax cut primarily benefited the middle class and lower-income earners. While the wealthiest 1% did receive the largest percentage increase in after-tax income as a result of the tax cut, they already held a disproportionate share of the nation's income before the legislation was enacted.
Jeffries' assertion, which has been shared by many Democratic leaders, might be based on selectively highlighting certain aspects of the tax cut's impact while ignoring others. It is essential to approach statements regarding tax policy with a nuanced perspective, acknowledging that the impacts can vary among different income groups and taxpayers.
Courtesy of CNN's Daniel Dale
The Truth Unveiled: Jeffries' statement requires clarification. It's not accurate that the top 1% have already pocketed 83% of the advantages from the tax cuts after Trump endorsed them in late 2017. Instead, the 83% figure is a 2017 projection from the Tax Policy Center research institute of the proportion of benefits the top 1% taxpayers would receive in the future, specifically in 2027, under the assumption that the law's temporary individual tax cuts expire at the end of 2025 without renewal and the law's perpetual corporate tax cuts remain.
The distribution of benefits changes significantly when both types of tax cuts are active. According to the Tax Policy Center's 2017 forecast, the top 1% taxpayers would receive approximately 25% of the benefits by 2025. That's still a significant portion, but significantly less than 83%.
Courtesy of CNN's Daniel Dale
In the context of the ongoing political discourse, some individuals may mistakenly believe that certain policies or documents, like Project 2025, promote a narrow definition of family as the only legitimate one. However, fact-checks from reliable sources like CNN's Facts First team have debunked such claims, proving that the document does not categorically label any type of family as illegitimate (politics).
Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico President Jorge Matthews recently made the error of attributing the authorship of Project 2025 to former President Trump, despite there being no evidence to support this claim (politics).
