Category: Fact Check

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In Michigan, recent ads airing on TV and online target Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers over his past work in tech, accusing him of aiding Chinese companies in accessing U.S. markets and risking national security.

Elissa Slotkin, a Democratic representative, is challenging Rogers to fill the Senate seat left open by retiring Democrat Debbie Stabenow. Slotkin has accused Rogers of helping companies tied to China and pointed to Rogers’ work with AT&T, which was pushing to sell Chinese phones in the U.S. at the time.

In a 15-second ad that appeared on Facebook and Instagram from Aug. 9-Aug. 19, Slotkin’s campaign said Rogers’ work involved bringing Chinese tech companies to the U.S. 

“What did Mike Rogers do after 20 years as a politician? He left Michigan to trade on his D.C. connections, helping Chinese tech companies get access to the U.S.,” the ad’s narrator said, as a Huawei logo flashes on the screen. 

When we asked Slotkin’s campaign for evidence behind her claim, it pointed us to articles about AT&T’s efforts to bring Huawei and ZTE devices to the U.S.

Huawei is a multinational Chinese tech company that sells phones and mobile network equipment. A research report from Rand Corp., a nonprofit think tank, said Huawei has close ties to the Chinese government, and lawmakers have pushed American tech companies to cut ties with Huawei over national security concerns.

Rogers worked for American tech companies that had connections to Huawei — including AT&T and Nokia. But Slotkin’s ad would have viewers believe Rogers was involved in deals to bring Chinese tech to the U.S. There’s little evidence to back that up.

“At no point ever has Mike advocated for Chinese technology companies, especially Huawei and ZTE,” Rogers campaign spokesperson Chris Gustafson said.

Huawei security concerns

Rogers served in Congress for 14 years, representing Michigan’s 8th Congressional District from 2001 to 2015. He was the House Intelligence Committee chair from 2011 to 2015. 

As House Intelligence Committee chair, Rogers oversaw an investigation that led to the committee labeling Huawei and ZTE, another Chinese tech company, as national security threats. A committee report found no evidence that the companies were spying in the U.S., but said both companies “cannot be trusted to be free of foreign state influence.” 

Adam Segal, an expert on Chinese foreign policy and cybersecurity at the Council on Foreign Relations, told PolitiFact that the committee’s assessment was based on concerns that the companies’ network infrastructure could be used to surveil Americans or to disable vital network operations.

“You’re worried about collection of data, and turning over that data for intelligence purposes, or causing a disruption in critical services or telecom services in a crisis,” Segal said. 

In 2012, Rogers appeared on CBS News’ “60 Minutes” to warn American tech companies against working with Huawei. 

“I would find another vendor if you care about your intellectual property, if you care about your consumers’ privacy, and you care about the national security of the United States of America,” Rogers said. 

Huawei denies that it threatens U.S. security. It has said it is a private company and would deny Chinese government requests to access its network or cede intelligence.

In 2022, the Federal Communications Commission banned the sale of new devices and equipment from Huawei and ZTE, citing security concerns.

What did Rogers do after leaving Congress?

After leaving Congress in 2015, Rogers hosted a syndicated talk radio show and began working and consulting in cybersecurity. He joined the board of directors of companies and nonprofits related to his congressional work in cybersecurity. These included IronNet Cybersecurity, a cybersecurity services company, and Mitre, a nonprofit that conducts federally funded research in fields including defense and cybersecurity.

Both AT&T and Rogers’ spokesperson, Gustafson, confirmed that Rogers worked as a sales consultant for AT&T’s managed cybersecurity unit in 2016 and 2017. AT&T was then talking with Huawei on a deal to sell its phones in the U.S. The company had also begun selling devices made by ZTE. 

The deal between AT&T and Huawei unraveled in 2018, before it was set to be formally announced. Although the companies gave no official reason for the deal’s demise, it came after members of the House and Senate intelligence committees wrote to the FCC with concerns about Huawei’s plans to enter the U.S. market, Reuters reported. 

Rogers’ campaign and AT&T told us that Rogers was not involved in any business decisions related to Huawei. Gustafson said Rogers “played absolutely zero role and had no oversight or say in equipment procurement for AT&T Wireless.”

AT&T confirmed Rogers’ position in an email, and said he “had no role in business or purchasing decisions with the company.” 

In biographical blurbs connected to 2017 and 2019 conferences Rogers attended, Rogers was described as “chief security adviser” for AT&T. AT&T described Rogers’ role as a sales consultant.

In August, Rogers’ campaign sent a cease-and-desist letter to local TV stations over their airing a Slotkin ad that also claimed that Rogers aided Chinese companies. In the letter, which the Rogers campaign provided to PolitiFact, Rogers’ lawyers wrote that Rogers “has never worked for any Chinese tech companies, including ZTE and Huawei.” 

Although Slotkin’s campaign focused on claims about AT&T, Rogers was also a risk analyst for Nokia’s American subsidiary from 2016 to 2024. The larger multinational corporation, Nokia, is headquartered in Finland. As a risk analyst, Rogers provided “advice and guidance on business and security risks to senior company leaders,” Gustafson said, and had no connection to its Chinese ventures.

Until January, Nokia partnered with Huawei in a joint ownership of Chinese tech company TD Tech. Nokia was the majority owner with 51%. Nokia sold its stake in January to a group of Chinese companies. 

It’s unlikely that Rogers’ role with Nokia’s American division would have been connected to its parent company’s ventures in China, Segal said. 

“If they’re maintaining good cybersecurity, that joint venture is not connected in any way to the networks that Nokia US is using,” Segal said. 

Our ruling

In an ad, Slotkin’s campaign said Rogers was “helping Chinese companies get access to the U.S.” 

Rogers worked for AT&T while it was pursuing deals with Chinese phone companies to sell their devices in the U.S. But Rogers’ role was separate from those business decisions, the company said, and there’s no evidence he was involved. 

We rate this claim False.  

On the opening night of the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, President Joe Biden officially passed the baton onto Vice President Kamala Harris as she makes a historic presidential run. 

A few months ago, the nation couldn’t have seen that coming. 

In July, Biden announced he would drop out of the presidential race, bowing to pressure from others in the party who worried about his age and ability to beat former President Donald Trump, this year’s Republican nominee for the role, in the fall. 

Harris’ entry into the race gave Democrats a jolt of energy for an election that was once burdened by unenthusiasm. In Wisconsin, an Aug. 7 Marquette University Law School poll found the percentage of registered voters who said they were very enthusiastic about the fall election was 61%, up from 46% in June — a change largely driven by Democrats. 

The unprecedented switch-up has also had many Republicans crying foul. That includes U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis. 

“They’re going to formally kick the president to the side of the road tonight. Their coup is complete,” Johnson said Aug. 19 during a press conference from Trump’s Chicago hotel. “Their nominee will be somebody who didn’t get one vote in the primary.” 

Other high-profile Republicans have also referred to Biden’s dropping out as a “coup.” Although they may be using it as a figure of speech, it doesn’t meet the literal definition of the word. 

Experts say coups are trademarked by threats of violence, stealthy acts

As Johnson is using the term, “coup” is short for the French phrase “coup d’etat,” which refers to the overthrow of the government. 

Experts on the subject spoke with PolitiFact National at the end of July, as more Republicans began to use the term to describe Biden’s exit from the race. 

Scott Althaus, who directs the University of Illinois’ Cline Center for Advanced Social Research Coup D’etat Project, told PolitiFact that the project’s codebook has five criteria to meet the definition of a coup, including “irregular means.” In other words, initiators of a coup have to use threats, use of coercion or force to remove someone from power. 

“Constitutionally legitimate leadership changes,” including “resignations triggered by a loss of popular support,” are regular removals, according to the codebook, not coup events. 

Erica De Bruin, associate government professor at Hamilton College and author of the book, “How to Prevent Coups d’Etat: Counterbalancing and Regime Survival,” said that although Biden faced political pressures not to run, there was no threat of violence should he press on — a fundamental feature of coups. 

Matt Cleary, an assistant professor of political science at Syracuse University, agreed with De Bruin. 

“(Biden) was certainly pressured and persuaded — but by arguments, not at the point of a gun,” he told PolitiFact National.

De Bruin also said Democrats did not seek to remove Biden from power outside the regular electoral process, but rather encouraged him to end his campaign for a second term. 

Cleary added that stealth, another common element of coups, wasn’t employed here, since the discussion about whether Biden should drop out played out in the public sphere for weeks. 

Although it’s fair to raise questions about what brought about Biden’s decision to exit the race, he said, calling it a coup “does not accurately reflect” what happened.

Johnson may or may not have been using a figure of speech when he called it a coup. But experts agree it was not one.  

 

Omar Navarro was charged with misusing campaign funds after unsuccessfully running against U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., in four consecutive congressional elections. But Waters did not make an online post to discourage people from following Navarro, as social media users claimed. 

“DO NOT FOLLOW @REALOMARNAVARRO! He’s a young Hispanic Republican spreading lies on Instagram,” a screenshot on Instagram purporting to be from Waters’ official social media account says. “He claims Democrats have failed Hispanic America. He is also pro-life and pro-Trump. Why is he not suspended? Do NOT follow him!”

(Screengrab from Instagram)

The post did not include a time stamp and is not on Water’s official X and Instagram accounts. We also found no media reports about it. And Waters did not delete any X posts in the last 30 days according to Social Blade, a social media analytics platform. 

J. Ellis McGinnis, Waters’ chief of staff, told PolitiFact in an email that the post was fake. 

We rate the claim that Maxine Waters told her followers on X not to follow Omar Navarro because he is a Hispanic Republican Pants on Fire! 

PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

A day after Vice President Kamala Harris officially accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination for president, independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. held a press conference to announce he was suspending his campaign and throwing his support behind Republican nominee Donald Trump.

“Many months ago, I promised the American people that I would withdraw from the race if I became a spoiler,” Kennedy said Aug. 23 in Phoenix. “In my heart, I no longer believe that I have a realistic path to electoral victory in the face of this relentless systematic censorship and media control.”

Despite his deep Democratic family roots, Kennedy in October dropped his bid for the Democratic nomination in order to run as an independent. His campaign drew voters who were often otherwise undecided between the Republican option — former President Trump — and Democrat President Joe Biden, whose candidacy drew low voter enthusiasm, polls showed.

After Biden exited the election July 21, the president threw his support behind Harris, a change that altered dynamics in what surveys show is a very tight race.

Delivering comments that touched on everything from war to processed foods to the drug Ozempic, Kennedy described his campaign being influenced by “censorship and media control” by news organizations, tech companies and Biden — a claim that PolitiFact has investigated before. Kennedy said he would seek to remove his name from ballots in about 10 battleground states.  

“If you live in a blue state, you can vote for me without harming or helping President Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris,” he said. “In red states, the same will apply. I encourage you to vote for me.”

Already, Kennedy has filed paperwork to withdraw his name from the ballots in Arizona and Pennsylvania. 

Kennedy’s campaign was unconventional and made for unconventional headlines.

In May, for example, The New York Times reported that Kennedy once said a doctor believed an abnormality on his brain scans in 2010 was “caused by a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died.” Experts told PolitiFact that’s unlikely.

And in early August, Kennedy posted a three-minute video on X saying he’d dumped a dead bear cub’s carcass in Central Park nearly a decade ago.

But Kennedy’s work has long centered around false and misleading antivaccine claims. His campaign of conspiracy theories earned him PolitiFact’s 2023 Lie of the Year. Among the falsehoods he repeated: that vaccines cause autism, that childhood vaccines are untested and psychiatric drugs cause mass shootings.

His remarks on other topics caught our attention, too. Here are six times we put Kennedy on the Truth-O-Meter in 2024. 

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is broadcast on a large screen as he speaks during an anti-vaccine rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on Jan. 23, 2022. (AP)

Claim: “President Biden is the first candidate in history, the first president in history, that has used the federal agencies to censor political speech … to censor his opponent.”

Rating: False

When he said this in an April CNN interview, Kennedy was referring to his lawsuit against the federal government in which he alleges the government censored his antivaccine social media statements. His claim was flawed in multiple ways. 

Kennedy — who declared his presidential run in April 2023 — wasn’t Biden’s political opponent in January 2021, when a Biden administration official contacted Twitter over Kennedy’s antivaccine post. Experts told PolitiFact that Biden administration efforts to get social media platforms to moderate false posts is not the same as censoring opponents. 

History shows that other U.S. presidents have taken extreme measures to silence political dissent. Presidents John Adams and Woodrow Wilson signed sedition legislation that made it a crime to criticize the federal government. Those laws led to the prosecution of political figures. 

Claim: U.S. Border Patrol agents take migrants “to the Yuma, (Arizona,) airport, put them on a plane to any destination they want. … And they pay their ticket. And then they get reimbursement from FEMA.”

Rating: False

Kennedy made this statement during a June 27 X livestream that he described as “the real debate” to compete with the televised Biden-Trump debate airing at the same time. 

Federal immigration officers do not provide migrants financial assistance, including plane tickets, the Department of Homeland Security told PolitiFact. 

Migrants must pay for their own flights or transportation after they’ve been released from Border Patrol’s custody. The Federal Emergency Management Agency gives money to nonprofit organizations and local governments that help immigrants. Transportation services are eligible under the programs. But FEMA does not reimburse Border Patrol.

The federal government arranges flights for some migrants in specific scenarios: when the migrants are being deported, taken to a detention center or when minors who crossed the border alone are being reunited with family members in the U.S. or sent to licensed U.S. shelters.

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. talks during a campaign event, in West Hollywood, Calif., June 27, 2024. (AP)

Claim: The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals “just ruled Covid vax mandates unconstitutional.”

Rating: False

On June 7, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit from  Los Angeles school employees who opposed COVID-19 vaccination mandates. But legal experts who follow vaccination and health law told PolitiFact in June that the appeals court did not rule on whether a vaccine mandate is constitutional, as Kennedy had said in a June 12 Facebook post.

 

(Screenshot from Facebook)

Claim: “Congress prohibits (The National Institutes of Health) from researching the cause of mass shootings.”

Rating: False 

Kennedy made this claim in an April 21 X post, but it is based on outdated information. In 1996, Congress passed a provision of an appropriations bill called the Dickey Amendment, which federal officials widely interpreted as barring federally funded research related to gun violence — though some observers say that was a misinterpretation. In 2018, Congress clarified that the provision didn’t bar federally funded gun-related research, and funding for such efforts has been flowing since 2020.

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks to supporters during a campaign event April 21, 2024, in Royal Oak, Mich. (AP)

Claim: On Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol “protestors carried no weapons.”

Rating: Pants on Fire!

When Kennedy made this statement, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported that 129 defendants charged in the Capitol attack were “charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer.” (Now, that number exceeds 160 people.)

PolitiFact also found numerous examples of convicted defendants who brought firearms or used other weapons that day. After our fact-check published, Kennedy retracted his statement. 

Rioters loyal to President Donald Trump at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. (AP)

Claim: “The much-trumpeted job growth in the last year was ENTIRELY part-time jobs.”

Rating: Half True

When Kennedy said this in March in an X post, we found his statement was partially accurate but ignored important information. 

Available data at the time showed that from February 2023 to February 2024, the net increase in part-time jobs exceeded the net increase in total jobs. 

However, economists warned that the numbers can shift wildly month to month and experts advise against fixating on a specific timespan. For example, focusing on January 2023 to January 2024 showed that overall employment rose by 1 million while part-time employment rose by 559,000.

PolitiFact Staff Writer Maria Ramirez Uribe, Senior Correspondent Amy Sherman, Chief Correspondent Louis Jacobson and Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

RELATED: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign of conspiracy theories: PolitiFact’s 2023 Lie of the Year

Democrats’ messaging throughout the four days of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago was one of exuberance and determination that culminated with Vice President Kamala Harris officially accepting the presidential nomination.

Harris rallied her base on issues including abortion rights, voting rights and the economy. But she also asked all Americans “regardless of party, race, gender or the language your grandmother speaks” to “chart a new way forward.”

Vice presidential nominee and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz leaned into his former role as a high school football coach and touted his record as lawmaker and governor.

The DNC speaker list featured multiple other high-profile Democrats, including President Joe Biden, former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, former first lady Michelle Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

PolitiFact fact-checks politicians across the political spectrum. We also fact-checked the Republican National Convention in July. Read more about our process.

Here’s a wrap-up of the claims we fact-checked during the DNC, day by day.

President Joe Biden speaks Aug. 19, 2024, during the first day of Democratic National Convention in Chicago. (AP)

Day 1: Monday, Aug. 19

Biden was the night’s most notable speaker. Throughout the night, attendees chanted, “Thank you, Joe” as speakers praised Biden’s term and warned about reelecting Donald Trump as president.

Biden: “Instead of paying $400 a month for insulin, seniors with diabetes will pay $35 a month.”

Half True.

The Inflation Reduction Act, which Biden signed in 2022, capped out-of-pocket insulin costs at $35 a month for Medicare beneficiaries. But pharmaceutical experts told PolitiFact that most beneficiaries were likely not paying more than $400 before the law.

Costs and other factors vary, experts said, so it is possible that some Medicare beneficiaries might have paid as much as $400 for insulin in a given month.

Biden: The average semiconductor industry salary “will be over $100,000 a year, and you don’t need a college degree.”

Mostly False. 

Although the average semiconductor industry salary is around $170,000, that figure includes salaries for jobs that require college degrees. The most a person makes without a college degree is about $70,000, according to a 2021 report from the Semiconductor Industry Association and Oxford Economics, an industry group.

Read all our Day 1 fact-checks here.

Former President Barack Obama speaks Aug. 20, 2024, at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. (AP)

Day 2: Tuesday, Aug. 20

The Obamas were the night’s star speakers. Michelle Obama rallied the convention with chants of “Do something” for the Harris-Walz campaign, while Barack Obama lauded Biden’s achievements.

Michelle Obama: One of Trump’s proposals is “shutting down the Department of Education.”

True.

Trump has proposed to close the federal Department of Education.

The agency’s duties would go to states under Trump’s plans. “In connection with totally refocusing schools on succeeding in the world of work, President Trump pledges to close the Department of Education in Washington, D.C., and to send all education work and needs back to the states,” according to his campaign website.

Barack Obama: Under Joe Biden, the U.S. produced “15 million jobs, higher wages, lower health care costs.”

Half True.

The U.S. has added 15.8 million jobs under Biden’s presidency but some were jobs regained after pandemic-induced unemployment. Although wages are also higher, they haven’t always kept up with high inflation. Health care costs hinge on several factors, including insurance. But, U.S. health care expenditures as a percentage of gross domestic product peaked during the pandemic in 2020 and have since fallen roughly to prepandemic levels.

Read all our Day 2 fact-checks here.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks Aug. 21, 2024, after accepting the Democratic vice presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. (AP)

Day 3: Wednesday, Aug. 21

Walz took the stage on Night 3, highlighting his background as a public school teacher, high school football coach and National Guard veteran, and his record in Congress and as governor.

The Democratic vice presidential nominee also attacked Trump and his policies, calling them “weird” but also “wrong” and “dangerous.” Another key Night 3 speaker was Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

Walz: “And we know if these guys get back in the White House … they’ll repeal the Affordable Care Act.”

This is a standard line in Harris’ and Walz’s stump speeches. Trump’s own words often make his position tough to discern. But he isn’t actively campaigning on this position.

Trump worked unsuccessfully as president to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. He maintained his position through campaigning in 2023.

But Trump flip-flopped in March 2024, writing on Truth Social that he “isn’t running to terminate” the ACA but to make it “better” and “less expensive.” He hasn’t detailed how he’d do that.

Buttigieg: “Crime was higher on (Trump’s) watch.”

Half True.

The violent crime rate has decreased under Biden, although the most recent data isn’t official. But property crime increased in 2022, reversing a longtime trend, FBI data shows. 

The U.S. violent crime rate dropped for the first three years of Trump’s presidency before spiking in 2020. That spike was especially sharp for murders: The 2020 increase was nearly triple the previous record for any year dating back to at least 1961.

The official data from Biden’s term is incomplete (the last full year of FBI data is from 2022), but preliminary government estimates and independent measurements show significant declines in violent crime over the past year and a half. Official data from 2023 is expected in October.

Read all our Day 3 fact-checks here.

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris speaks Aug. 22, 2024, at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. (AP)

Day 4: Thursday, Aug. 22

On the DNC’s final night, Harris formally accepted the Democratic presidential nomination, becoming the second woman, second Black person and first Asian American to do so. Harris shared her story as a daughter of immigrants — her father coming to the U.S. from Jamaica and her mother from India — and how that shaped her journey to the top of the Democratic ticket.

She also leaned into several key policy themes: abortion rights, voting rights, foreign policy, the economy and immigration.

Here are some of Harris’ statements that we fact-checked.

Trump “plans to create a national anti-abortion coordinator and force states to report on women’s miscarriages and abortions.”

Mostly False.

What Harris describes is Project 2025, a 900-page policy manual produced by some of Trump’s allies, but is not something Trump himself has claimed. Project 2025 doesn’t mention a “national anti-abortion coordinator.” The document calls for a “pro-life politically appointed Senior Coordinator of the Office of Women, Children, and Families.”

It says the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s abortion surveillance and maternal mortality reporting systems are inadequate and proposes withholding federal money from states that don’t report to the CDC how many abortions happen in their states.

In an April interview with Time magazine, Trump said some states “might” choose to monitor and punish women for illegal abortions. But, when asked about the topic, he told the reporter to “speak to the individual states” about it.

“I … helped pass a homeowner bill of rights, one of the first of its kind in the nation.”

True. 

As California’s attorney general, Harris was part of a multistate settlement that won debt relief for homeowners affected by the 2007-10 housing crisis. When a settlement agreement was reached in 2012, California won a combined $20 billion for its homeowners. 

In July 2012, the California Legislature passed the California Homeowner Bill of Rights, a set of laws to protect homeowners from foreclosures. The laws, which were modeled largely after the foreclosure lawsuit, took effect in January 2013. Harris endorsed them. 

In 2012, the Los Angeles Times reported that the legislation made California the first state to prohibit this practice. And The Associated Press wrote that California would become the first state to write the parts of the mortgage settlement into law.

Read all our Day 4 fact-checks here.

Fact-checking misinformation about Harris, DNC

No, social media videos do not show Kamala Harris intoxicated at public events 

Viral posts falsely claimed Harris couldn’t stand up at the DNC because she was inebriated. But Harris stood and applauded several times and the clip of her seated was when delegates cheered for her.

No, the DNC hasn’t canceled women’s restrooms

When social media posts falsely claimed the DNC had no women’s restrooms at the press filing center, PolitiFact’s on-the-ground journalists went counting. We found that there were several women’s bathrooms throughout the event space, far outnumbering gender-neutral bathrooms.

Related stories

What has Joe Biden accomplished as president? 

How accurate are warnings by Democrats, Kamala Harris about Donald Trump’s ‘Project 2025 agenda?’

Fact-checking Tim Walz before his 2024 DNC speech – plus the attacks on his record 

Walz has conflated IVF and IUI when discussing his family. What’s the difference?

Ask PolitiFact: Are Democrats offering ‘free abortions and vasectomies’ at their Chicago convention?

Read our DNC coverage in Spanish

Verificamos los discursos del primer día de la Convención Nacional Demócrata 

Verificamos lo que dijeron Barack Obama y otros demócratas el día 2 de la convención en Chicago 

¿Qué tan ciertos fueron los discursos de Tim Walz y otros durante la Convención Nacional Demócrata? 

Esto es lo que verificamos del discurso de aceptación de Kamala Harria en la convención demócrata ​

PolitiFact Chief Correspondent Louis Jacobson, Senior Correspondent Amy Sherman, Staff Writers Grace Abels, Madison Czopek, Samantha Putterman, Loreben Tuquero and Maria Ramirez Uribe and Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this story.

After Nevada Democrat Sen. Jacky Rosen co-sponsored a bill to end federal taxes on tips, her Republican opponent for U.S. Senate countered that Rosen’s show of support was disingenuous.

Sam Brown, a former U.S. Army captain hoping to unseat Rosen in the competitive swing state contest this November, said Rosen once described ending taxes on tips as harmful.

Rosen, he wrote in an Aug. 9 X post, “said ending taxes on tips would ‘hurt working Nevada families.’ She couldn’t be any more detached.”

He made similar statements during interviews Aug. 9 and Aug. 12.

Brown endorsed eliminating taxes on tips after former President Donald Trump first campaigned on the issue June 9 during a rally in Las Vegas. On Aug. 11, Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris also endorsed the concept at a Las Vegas rally.

With more than 22% of Nevada’s workforce employed by the service and hospitality industry, the issue is of high interest in this battleground state. Some economists and budget experts  doubt the efficacy or plausibility of ending federal taxes on tips, but the platform has gathered a lot of support.

But did Rosen really call this tax policy potentially harmful for the state’s working families? 

We asked the Brown campaign for evidence of the claim, but received no response. Our review of Rosen’s statements found Brown’s characterization to be wrong and misleading.

An NBC News story may provide context

Three days after Trump called for the federal tip tax’s repeal, NBC News published a story that quoted Brown calling Trump a “visionary” for focusing on the issue and saying he had also planned to advocate for it.

Also in the story, Brown said Rosen was not championing the issue and Rosen’s campaign spokesperson, Johanna Warshaw, responded. NBC News paraphrased a portion of Warshaw’s comments. 

Here’s how that part of the story read (we have bolded the relevant portion):

“In states like this where we have a strong service-based economy, it makes a lot of sense,” Brown said of the no-taxes-on-tips proposal. “And I wonder why Jacky Rosen hasn’t brought this up and isn’t a champion on it.”  

Rosen’s campaign spokesperson Johanna Warshaw hit back at Brown, casting the promise as a distraction from what the campaign characterized as a tax agenda that would hurt the working class.

“Nevada workers know they can’t trust empty talking points from self-serving politicians like Sam Brown trying to cover up their actual agenda of giving away more tax breaks to billionaires and corporate special interests,” Warshaw said in a statement. “Jacky Rosen supports cutting taxes for tipped workers and all hardworking Nevadans, and that’s why she’s been fighting for years to deliver tax relief and pass a broad-based middle class tax cut while also lowering costs and raising the minimum wage.”

In its full context, the “hurt the working class” paraphrase describes Rosen’s assessment of Brown’s overall tax agenda, not Rosen’s assessment of ending taxes on tips.

Rosen’s stance on ending taxes on tips

Following Trump’s Las Vegas rally, Rosen was one of the first Democratic elected officials to back ending federal taxes on tips, NBC News reported June 21.

She and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., became the lone Democratic co-sponsors of the No Taxes on Tips Act, a bill Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, proposed. 

“Nevada has a higher percentage of tipped workers than any other state, and getting rid of the federal income tax on tips would deliver immediate financial relief for service and hospitality staff across our state who are working harder than ever while getting squeezed by rising costs,” Rosen said in a July 12 press release announcing she had joined the Cruz bill.

The Rosen campaign also provided a July 16 letter she wrote to the Senate Finance Committee that urged the committee and Congress to end tip taxes.

Our ruling

Brown said Rosen said a proposal to end federal taxes on tips would “hurt working Nevada families.”

We found no evidence of Rosen saying that, nor Brown’s variation it would “hurt working class Nevadans.” A Rosen campaign statement included in a June 12 NBC News report described Trump’s promise as “empty talking points,” but Rosen also said she supports cutting taxes on tipped workers. 

Rosen publicly supported ending federal taxes on tips days later and, about a month later, signed on to Cruz’s No Taxes on Tips Act.

We rate the claim False.

Chicago’s United Center, where the Democratic National Convention’s main programming is taking place, seats 23,500 people. But some social media users have shared images of the event with most of those seats unoccupied. 

“The DNC is nearly empty,” one person wrote Aug. 19 on Instagram Threads. “The difference between the RNC and DNC is apparent. All the internet and media hype was fake.” 

The post was accompanied with a video of Minyon Moore, the DNC convention committee chair, and Jaime Harrison, the Democratic National Committee chair, speaking to a sparsely populated venue on the convention’s first day. 

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

This video was taken at the beginning of opening night remarks, but the claim ignores that as time passed, the crowd became larger. 

Moore and Harrison gave opening remarks at about 6:30 p.m. EDT Aug. 19 to a venue at which people were still arriving. The crowd grew as the evening progressed. The Wall Street Journal reported that there were empty seats when the DNC began because protesters opposing the war in Gaza delayed buses and security screenings.

The security screening line Aug. 19 went on for blocks. It took one delegate from Ohio two and a half hours to get into the event, USA Today reported. 

The venue appeared to be filled by the time Vice President Kamala Harris gave a surprise speech at around 9 p.m. EDT, a C-SPAN livestream shows. 

We reached out to the DNC to ask about first-night attendance numbers but did not receive a response. 

Video footage of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Joe Biden’s DNC speeches also shows a full crowd by the end of the night. 

We rate the claim that the DNC was “nearly empty” during its first day False.