By Allison Graves, Neelesh Moorthy
The Democratic Party has a new presidential nominee, and for the first time for either major political party, she is a woman.
Hillary Clinton—a former secretary of state, senator and first lady—accepted her party’s nomination on the final night of the Democratic National Convention. After being introduced by her daughter Chelsea, Clinton emphasized the importance of standing up to Republican nominee Donald Trump.
“That’s why ‘Stronger Together’ is not just a lesson from our history,” Clinton told the crowd at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. “It’s not just a slogan for our campaign. It’s a guiding principle for the country we’ve always been and the future we’re going to build.”
The night also saw speeches by Republicans who decided this election to vote for Clinton over Trump, as well as the families of fallen police officers. The American military was also a major presence on stage, as several service members rallied for qualified leadership and championed patriotism.
Let’s get to it. (See our wrap-ups from night one, two and three of the convention.)
Attacking Donald Trump
Clinton critiqued Trump’s address at the Republican National Convention a week earlier, saying “he spoke for 70-odd minutes— and I do mean odd,” and should not be trusted.
“And most of all, don’t believe anyone who says: ‘I alone can fix it,’” Clinton said. “Those were actually Donald Trump’s words in Cleveland.”
We looked back at his speech, and Trump really did say this.
“Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it,” Trump said.
However, Trump did allude to working with others in different parts of his speech. He said he would work with law enforcement and added this tidbit about working with allied countries:
“We must work with all of our allies who share our goal of destroying ISIS and stamping out Islamic terror,” he said. “This includes working with our greatest ally in the region, the State of Israel.”
With that extra context, we rated Clinton’s claim Mostly True.
On the economy
Clinton said that the economy has improved significantly under President Barack Obama’s leadership, and said she would continue to build on his progress.
“Now, I don’t think President Obama and Vice President (Joe) Biden get the credit they deserve for saving us from the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes,” she said. “Our economy is so much stronger than when they took office. Nearly 15 million new private-sector jobs. Twenty million more Americans with health insurance. And an auto industry that just had its best year ever.”
We checked her claim on 15 million new private-sector jobs, and found it needed qualification.
That number is accurate, but only if you start from February 2010, a year after Obama took office. Experts told us it made sense to use that figure, however, because Obama could not be held responsible for the recession’s effects early in his administration.
Starting from when Obama took office in February 2009, the increase is more modest—10.6 million jobs.
We rated this statement Half True.
Clinton’s claim that the auto industry had its best year ever is a holdover from a couple months ago.
This is true by one big measure: Americans bought more cars and trucks in 2015 than ever before. In 2015, Americans bought more than 17.5 million cars. The last peak was 17.3 million in 2000, followed by a collapse to 10.4 million at the height of the recession in 2009.
One caveat, however, is that Clinton’s claim masks the long-term issues with American manufacturers, especially given foreign manufacturers’ growing market share. Still, experts we asked said sales figures are a good measure of the auto industry’s success.
We rated this statement Mostly True.
Dallas shootings
Clinton said she was inspired by the Dallas, Texas, community for its response to a tragic shooting that killed five police officers.
“Chief David Brown asked the community to support his force, maybe even join them,” Clinton said. “And you know how the community responded? Nearly 500 people applied in just 12 days.”
Between July 8, the day after the shooting, and July 20, there were 467 new applications, according to Dallas Police Department data.
That’s close to 500. We rate Clinton’s statement True.
