PolitiFact sorts out truth from fiction at the Democratic Convention

Democrats have wrapped up their first raucous day of their convention.

And the non-partisan fact-checkers from PolitiFact were there, trying to parse political truth from fiction.

Want to see how they fared? Abbreviated versions of our fact checks are below.

The latest fact-checks can be found at www.myajc.com/s/news/politifact/.

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Bernie Sanders said this:

“The top one-tenth of 1 percent now owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent.”

Sanders claim repeats a finding from a study by two internationally respected economists.

Others back up the study’s results.

That study has been criticized, for example, for not including Social Security in the wealth calculations.

Sanders’ claim is accurate. But it needs additional context.

We rate it Mostly True.

Sanders also said this:

Says Donald Trump “believes that states should actually have the right to lower the minimum wage below $7.25.”

Looking strictly at Trump’s words, at one point, in that Meet the Press interview, he said states should have the right to set their own minimum wage and rejected the idea that the federal government should set it for the country.

The only quibble with Sanders’ statement is he talked about what Trump believes, as if Trump’s policy is fixed and steady. It isn’t that simple. Trump suggested in one interview that he might consider raising the federal minimum wage. But most of the time, he has not expressed that view. Nor has Trump said anything recently to clarify his position.

Taking Trump’s ambiguity into account, we rate this claim Mostly True.

Elizabeth Warren said this:

“Donald Trump said he was excited for the 2008 housing crash that devastated millions of American families, because he thought it would help him scoop up more real estate on the cheap.”

We haven’t seen any evidence that Trump said he was excited about the crash once it happened.

And Warren’s office did not provide any.

Trump did make it clear that he would try to take advantage of a downturn in the housing market.

But, Scott, any good investor would try to do that.

Warren’s statement puts Trump’s comments in the wrong context.

It’s misleading

We rate Warren’s statement Half True.

Clinton running mate Tim Kaine said this earlier:

“Donald Trump is a guy who has called for privatization” of the Veterans Administration.

Trump has called for giving veterans access to private providers.

That may lead some veterans to seek care outside the V.A..

But it’s not the same thing as completely privatizing the system.

We rate Kaine’s claim Mostly False.

Republicans even got in the act sending a blast email as the convention had just ended for the night.

It said this:

Speakers at the Democratic National Convention made “zero mentions of the global terrorist threat posed by ISIS.”

Clinton did bring up the topic at an appearance in Charlotte on the same day.

But the email accurately reflects what was said — or more precisely, not said — from the podium in Philadelphia.

We rate the GOP statement True.

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