CHICAGO — PolitiFact is live fact-checking the third night of the 2024 Democratic National Convention, including tonight’s speeches by the Democratic vice presidential nominee, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, and former President Bill Clinton.
PolitiFact fact-checks politicians across the political spectrum. We also fact-checked the Republican National Convention in July. Read more about our process.
Continue to check back as we update this story.
Economy
Former President Bill Clinton: “Since the end of the Cold War, in 1989, America has created about 51 million new jobs. … What’s the score? Democrats 50 (million), Republicans 1 (million).”
Mostly True.
The number of jobs created from 1989 through March 2024 — under Republican Presidents George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and Donald Trump, and Democratic Presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden — was 50.6 million. Of that number, a bit over 1 million, or about 2.6%, were created during the Republican presidencies.
Including the 617,000 jobs added since March, when we last fact-checked a claim like this, further tilts the Democratic advantage.
Some economic research supports the notion that the economy under Democrats has performed especially well, including a 2014 paper by Princeton University economists Alan Blinder and Mark Watson.
However, attributing job creation to policies or presidents isn’t clear cut. The Republican Congress of 1995 to 2001 might deserve some of the credit for the job growth under Clinton.
Also, if you go back to the 1950s, the partisan job creation divide is less dramatic, but still uneven: 70% of jobs emerged under Democratic presidents and 30% emerged under Republican presidents.
Project 2025
Emily’s List President Jessica Mackler: Project 2025 would give a Trump-Vance administration “the power to monitor your pregnancy and even prosecute doctors for mailing abortion medication.”
Half True.
It’s accurate that Project 2025 recommends criminalizing mailing abortion medication, which could lead to the prosecution of doctors who mail them. It also would require states to report to the federal government additional maternal mortality statistics and how many abortions happen within their borders.
The statement leaves out important details: the Project 2025 recommendations are just that and do not carry the power of law; Trump has distanced himself from the project; and the project does not track all pregnant women.
The project recommends that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reverse its 2000 approval of mifepristone, the first pill taken in a two-drug medication abortion regimen. Medication is the most common form of abortion in the U.S. — accounting for about 63% in 2023.
If the FDA doesn’t reverse approval of mifepristone, Project 2025 has several recommendations for the drug. One is implementing new rules for the medication, including returning to a policy that would require that it be provided in person, and outlaw its distribution by mail.
The project also calls for the Justice Department to enforce the 1873 Comstock Act — which bans the mailing of “obscene” materials — on mifepristone.
The plan proposes withholding federal money from states that don’t report to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention how many abortions occur in their states. It also says the statistics should be separated by category, including spontaneous miscarriage, treatments that incidentally result in fetal death (such as chemotherapy), stillbirths and “induced abortion.”
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis: “On Page 455, Project 2025 says that states have to report miscarriages to the Trump administration.”
True.
Project 2025 says the CDC abortion surveillance and maternal mortality reporting systems are inadequate and calls for “accurate and reliable statistical data.”
Trump’s campaign was not involved in the document’s creation and has distanced itself from the project. The project manual is styled as recommendations for an incoming 2025 Republican administration.
Page 455 of the document calls for the Health and Human Services Department to “use every available tool, including the cutting of funds, to ensure that every state reports exactly how many abortions take place within its borders, at what gestational age of the child, for what reason, the mother’s state of residence, and by what method.”
It also says the statistics should be separated by category, including spontaneous miscarriage, treatments that incidentally result in fetal death (such as chemotherapy), stillbirths and “induced abortion.”
Comedian Kenan Thompson: “Page 319 calls for the complete elimination of the Department of Education.”
True.
Project 2025 says federal education policy “should be limited and, ultimately, the federal Department of Education should be eliminated.” The plan scales back the federal government’s role in education policy and devolves the functions that remain to other agencies.
Aside from eliminating the department, the project also proposes scrapping the Biden administration’s Title IX revision, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. It also would let states opt out of federal education programs and calls for passing a federal parents’ bill of rights similar to ones passed in some Republican-led state legislatures.
PolitiFact Chief Correspondent Louis Jacobson, Senior Correspondent Amy Sherman, Staff Writers Grace Abels, Kwasi Asiedu, Madison Czopek, Samantha Putterman, Sara Swann, Loreben Tuquero and Maria Ramirez Uribe and Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this story.
Our convention fact-checks rely on both new and previously reported work. We link to past work whenever possible. In some cases, a fact-check rating may be different tonight than in past versions. In those cases, either details of what the candidate said, or how the candidate said it, differed enough that we evaluated it anew.