Republican Convention, Day 1: A Campaign-Style Trump Speech and More
(Photo Courtesy of the Committee on Arrangements for the 2020 Republican National Committee via Getty Images)
Before the prime-time GOP showcase began, President Donald Trump took to the podium Monday afternoon and delivered an approximately one-hour campaign-style speech to delegates after he was officially renominated by the Republican Party as its candidate for president.
His comments were wide-ranging, and our partners at PolitiFact found many to be either wrong, misleading, premature or in need of clarification. Here is the complete from that speech and story detailing the rest of the evening. (PolitiFact also former Vice President Joe Biden鈥檚 acceptance speech during the Democratic National Convention.)
Monday鈥檚 evening broadcast was full of platitudes. Amy Ford, a West Virginia nurse, applauded Trump鈥檚 steps during the pandemic to expand telemedicine, saying these policies are 鈥渆ssential鈥� and will 鈥渃ontinue to aid many that are unable to find transportation or a way to the doctor for regular checkups. This is especially true in rural America.鈥� Dr. G.E. Ghali, a Louisiana oral surgeon and chancellor of a medical research center, spoke as both a clinician and a patient about how the administration鈥檚 efforts to provide emergency-use authorization for emerging treatments saved lives.
Video vignettes heralded Trump鈥檚 leadership during the coronavirus, focusing on things like , the administration鈥檚 initiative to speed vaccine development, rather than the : nearly 6 million Americans who have contracted COVID-19 or the more than 177,000 who have died. Trump also spoke with a group of first responders 鈥� including nurses, postal workers and a police officer from Colorado who said she had contracted COVID-19 in late March and has since recovered. 鈥淭hat means we don鈥檛 have to be afraid of you at all, right?鈥� Trump said to her. 鈥淥nce you鈥檙e recovered, we have the whole thing with plasma happening. That means your blood is very valuable, you know that, right?鈥�
What follows are some of Trump鈥檚 statements from his afternoon speech geared to health policy issues:
Trump has repeatedly claimed that President Barack Obama left him with an empty national stockpile of emergency supplies. But this .
The stockpile had a shortage of N95 masks, which were depleted as a result of the H1N1 outbreak in 2009 and not聽聽during the Obama or Trump administrations.
聽that the budget battles during Obama鈥檚 tenure after the Republicans won the 2010 election also hurt the stockpile鈥檚 budget.
Budget figures going back to 2009 show overall funding for the stockpile dropped to its lowest level in 2013, to about $477 million. Allocations have grown steadily since then to a 2020 budget of $705 million.
鈥淲e eliminated Obamacare鈥檚 horrible and very unfair individual mandate, which basically knocked out Obamacare. We knocked out Obamacare.鈥�
Saying Republicans 鈥渒nocked out Obamacare鈥� is a stretch. Trump did sign legislation to eliminate the requirement that Americans have health insurance or pay a tax penalty, but eliminating this requirement did not get rid of Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act, as it is officially known.
The administration supports a lawsuit by a group of Republican state attorneys general that argues that the ACA should be ruled unconstitutional. The lawsuit鈥檚 argument focuses on the Supreme Court鈥檚 previous ruling that the ACA was constitutional because it was based on a tax, which Congress has the authority to levy. With the tax penalty now eliminated, the lawsuit argues, the law should be scrapped entirely. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case.
In the meantime, much of the health law鈥檚 key provisions remain in force. In 2020, at least 11.4 million Americans have 聽through the online marketplaces created under the act. More than 10 million others have聽聽Medicaid under the expanded eligibility requirements passed as part of the law. And people who have private insurance have benefited from new rules enacted by the law, from the ability to keep young adults on a parent鈥檚 policy to an end to out-of-pocket payments for certain preventive measures.
鈥淪o we protected your preexisting conditions, very strongly protected.鈥�
We rated a similar claim as 聽Protections for preexisting conditions under Obamacare remain on the books, but it鈥檚 not for lack of trying by the Trump administration.
For starters, the administration backs the lawsuit that would eliminate protections for preexisting conditions by getting rid of Obamacare.
In addition, the administration has not put forth any plan that might keep those guarantees in place. Every replacement health bill the administration has endorsed has offered protections less generous than those offered by the ACA.
Finally, the administration has issued a rule loosening restrictions on the length of so-called short-term health plans. While such plans could be more affordable for individuals in the market for insurance, they are not required to provide preexisting condition protections.
PolitiFact鈥檚 Louis Jacobson, Amy Sherman, Samantha Putterman and Miriam Valverde contributed to this story.