Final Night of the Democratic Convention
Summary
As the socially distanced convention came to a close, Joe Biden accepted the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination with a speech that was largely accurate, but lacked context in some instances:
- Biden claimed that America has “by far the worst performance of any nation” with respect to the COVID-19 pandemic. While that’s true based on the raw totals of COVID-19 cases and deaths, the U.S. is not the worst when adjusted for population or on other metrics.
- The former vice president referred to the tax cuts championed by President Donald Trump as “the president’s $1.3 trillion tax giveaway to the wealthiest 1% and the biggest, most profitable corporations.” Although those with higher incomes reaped greater benefits from the tax law, most households received a tax cut.
- Biden said Trump was “proposing to eliminate” the payroll tax that funds Social Security. The president did say he would be “ending that tax,” but administration officials said he meant he would forgive a recently announced payroll tax deferral.
- Biden said, “More than 10 million people are going to lose their health insurance this year.” A study did find that, but it also said most would regain insurance from another source, leaving 3.5 million of them uninsured.
- Earlier in the night, former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg said “Trump has lost 250,000 manufacturing jobs.” True, but that’s because of the pandemic. And not mentioned is that 192,000 were lost during the Obama-Biden years.
The Democrats wrapped up their four-day convention on Aug. 21. The Republican National Convention kicks off on Aug. 24.
Analysis
‘Worst Performance’ With COVID-19
In critiquing Trump on his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, Biden the U.S.’s high COVID-19 caseload and
