WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump on Monday made a dizzying series of misleading allegations about voice fraud and health care when fellow Republicans opened their convention with speeches distorting the agenda of his Democratic rival, Joe Biden.
Trump falsely claimed that he was the person who ensured that people with already medical problems were covered by health insurance; in fact, it was Democratic President Barack Obama. Several speakers accused Biden of intending to defend the police, ban hydraulic fracturing, take over health care and open borders – nothing is true.
A look at rulings at the Republican National Convention:
Health care
TRUMP: “We have protected your existing conditions. Very strongly protected that already exists… and you do not hear it. ”
THE FACTS: You do not hear it because it is not true.
People with pre-existing medical problems have health insurance protection because of President Barack Obama’s health care law, which Trump is trying to dismantle.
One of Trump’s alternatives to Obama’s law – short-term health insurance, which already exists – does not have to cover existing conditions. Another alternative is health plans for associations, which focus on small businesses and sole proprietorships and which already cover existing conditions.
Neither of the two alternatives has made a huge difference in the market.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is urging the Supreme Court to fully recall the Obama era, including provisions that protect people with pre-existing conditions from discrimination in health insurance.
With the fact that “Obamacare” still applies, existing conditions are still covered by ordinary individual medical insurance plans.
Insurers should take all applicants, regardless of medical history, and ask the same standard premiums for healthy people and those who have poor health, or who have medical problems.
Prior to the Affordable Care Act, any insurer could deny cover – or do more levy – to anyone with an existing condition who wanted to buy an individual policy.
Democratic attacks on Republican efforts to repeal the health care law and weaken existing protection of conditions were successful in the 2018 interim period, when Democrats regained control of the House.
Voting fraud
TRUMP, on consent: “Absent – as in Florida – absent is good. But other than that, they are very, very bad. ”
THE FACTS: He makes a false distinction. Ballot papers are issued in the same way as absent ballot papers, with the same level of scrutiny as signature verification in many states.
In more than 30 states and the District of Columbia, voters have the right to a ‘no apology’. This means that for whatever reason they can use ballot papers, regardless of whether someone is outside the city or working.
In Florida, the Legislature voted in 2016 to change the wording of such a vote from “absent” to “by mail” to make it clear that a voter can cast such votes if he wishes. So there is no “absentee” voting in that state, as Trump alludes to.
More generally, voter fraud has been extremely rare. The Brennan Center for Justice in 2017 rated the risk of vote fraud at 0.00004% to 0.0009%, based on studies from previous elections.
Only nine states currently have plans for ‘universal’ ballot, where ballot papers are automatically sent to registered voters. Five of the countries relied on the ballot papers even before the coronavirus pandemic expressed concern about having to vote in person.
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TRUMP, on the November votes and the Democrats: ‘We have to be very, very careful and this time they are trying to do it with the whole post office scam. They will blame it on the post office. You can see how they set it up. ‘
THE FACTS: No post-scam has emerged from the Democrats. Instead, Trump has given the suspicion that he wants to suppress the consensus to help his chances in the election.
He said so much. In an interview this month, he admitted that he was trying to starve the U.S. Postal Service out of money to make it harder to process an expected surge in ballot papers, which he worried could cost the election.
Trump has explicitly taken note of funding terms Democrats are seeking in an emergency relief package stuck on Capitol Hill. Without the extra money, he said, the Postal Service would not have the means to handle a flood of ballots from voters who want to avoid polling stations during the coronavirus pandemic.
“If we do not enter into an agreement, it means they are not getting the money,” Trump told Fox Business Network. “This means that they cannot have a universal postal vote; they just can not have it. ”
Over the weekend, the House passed legislation that would reverse recent changes in postal operations and send $ 25 billion to support the agency ahead of the November election, but the White House said Trump would veto it.
During a hearing in the House, the postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, acknowledged that Trump’s repeated attacks on ballot papers “are not useful”, but he denied that recent cuts are related to the election.
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TRUMP, on defective ballot papers in an election: “What does defective mean? It means fraud. ”
THE FACTS: No, defective ballot papers do not amount to fraud. The overwhelming majority is not.
According to the Brennan Center for Justice, the vast majority of ballot papers are disqualified for arriving late, which is of particular concern this year due to the recent delays in the U.S. Postal Service and an expected increase in voting during the coronavirus pandemic.
Votes are also deemed to be defective if a signature is missing – which is common among newer voters who are unfamiliar with the process – or if it does not match the files. In addition, some states require absentee voters to get a witness or notary to sign their ballots.
“None of this is fraud,” said Wendy Weiser, director of Brennan’s democracy program at the NYU School of Law. When suspicious cases are investigated for possible fraud, the studies proved the main reason for the shortcomings was the voter error, she said.
Defective ballot papers also have an exaggerated effect on voters of color, and recent lawsuits have successfully challenged some health risk requirements or voters’ rights. Earlier this year, for example, a federal judge ruled that a requirement in South Carolina to have witnesses submit ballots could endanger the health of voters and suspended them for the June election. Other states, including Minnesota and Rhode Island, also suspended the requirement due to the pandemic.
Although the rates of defective ballot papers are unacceptable, “people still need to have confidence in their votes, and they need to follow up,” Weiser said. “People need to know that these issues are being fought and hopefully many will be mitigated and addressed before November.”
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Police
REP. Louisiana STEVE SCALISE on police: “Joe Biden has adopted the leftist insane mission to disregard them.”
THE FACTS: No, Biden has explicitly rejected the leftist call to defend the police. He suggested more money to the police, provided the practices were improved.
Biden’s criminal justice agenda, announced long before the racial injustice protests, proposes more federal money for ‘training needed to prevent tragic, unjustifiable deaths’ and to appoint more officers to ensure departments’ population they serve reflects racial and ethnic.
He specifically calls for a $ 300 million infusion into federal community policing programs. It’s more money, not less.
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Biden’s agenda
REP. JIM JORDAN of Ohio on the Democratic agenda: “Defund the police, defund border patrol and defund our army.”
RONNA McDANIEL, Chair of the Republican National Committee: “You deserve to know that they will ban fracking and eliminate fossil fuels, which will kill millions of well-paid jobs and increase the cost of driving our cars and heating our homes. . You deserve to know that they want a complete takeover of our healthcare system, so moms like me will not be able to take our children to the same pediatrician they have been seeing for years. ‘
THE FACTS: These are not Biden’s positions. A number of Republican speakers have seized on proposals from the Democratic left, which in some cases distorted positions and assigned them to Biden, who do not share the view.
He does not favor the takeover of health care by the government; instead, he proposes to build on “Obamacare,” which preserves the private insurance market while expanding Medicaid.
He also did not endorse proposals to stop border enforcement or even criminalize illegal crossings.
Biden supports that only new oil and gas permits, including hydrofracking, be banned on federal soil. But most U.S. production is on private land – the U.S. Bureau of Land Management says production on federal land in 2018 accounts for less than 10% of oil and gas.
In a March 15 primary debate, Biden misinterpreted his energy policy and suggested that he would not allow any new hydraulic fracturing. His campaign quickly set the record straight. Biden was otherwise consistent in his middle position and went so far as to inform an anti-hydrofracking activist that he should ‘vote for someone else’ if he wanted an immediate ban on hydrofracking.
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McDANIEL: “You deserve to know about their plans to raise taxes on 82% of Americans.”
THE FACTS: This is not the plan. Biden says he will not raise taxes on anyone earning less than $ 400,000.
An analysis of Biden’s tax plan by the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Wharton budget model in March found that the bottom 90 percent of income earners, according to Biden’s proposal, would no longer pay federal income taxes.
Seitz reported from Chicago. Associated Press authors Matthew Daly and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar contributed to this report.