By Allison Graves, Neelesh Moorthy, Politifact
Republicans branded the second night of their national convention with an economic theme of "Make America Work Again," but most of the night’s speakers used their platform to accuse Hillary Clinton of being dishonest about Benghazi, her emails and even her own name.
"I am here to tell you Hillary Clinton will say anything, do anything, and be anything to get elected president," said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. "And we cannot allow it."
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a former federal prosecutor, opted to "prosecute" Clinton for her foreign policy decisions, with his "evidence" including the Iran deal, destabilizing actions in Libya and pushing for the end of the Cuban embargo.
House Speaker Paul Ryan hewed most closely to the night’s touted economic theme, touching on stagnant wages, job growth and the importance of a conservative governing mandate.
Two of Trump’s children, Tiffany Trump and Donald Trump Jr., also addressed the delegates, with Trump’s son blaming Democratic policies for contributing to low economic mobility.
Our fact-checking team investigated several claims. Here’s the rundown. (Check out our coverage of night one here.)
Say her name, say her name
McConnell summed up Clinton’s track record like this: "She lied about her emails, she lied about her server, She lied about Benghazi, she lied about sniper fire, why, she even lied about why her parents named her Hillary."
We’ve taken a look at most of those claims (her emails, the "sniper fire" incident and what she did or didn’t tell Benghazi victims’ families), but the bit about her name was new ground.
Turns out, McConnell has a point — though it’s not clear if Clinton intentionally lied.
In April 1995, Clinton in her role as first lady made a stop in Nepal at Mount Everest, which was first climbed in 1953 by Sir Edmund Hillary of New Zealand. According to an account by the New York Times, Clinton met the mountain-climber and told him how a magazine article about him inspired her mother to name her Hillary, with two l’s.
‘So when I was born, she called me Hillary, and she always told me it's because of Sir Edmund Hillary,’ " she said in the Times account.
However, Hillary only gained prominence six years after Clinton was born with his 1953 climb (she was born in 1947). In October 2006, a Clinton spokesperson walked back the claim, calling it a "sweet family story" used to inspire Clinton to greatness.
We rated McConnell’s statement Half True.
‘Prosecuting’ Clinton on foreign policy
As part of Christie’s "prosecution" of Clinton, he said she had expressed support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, despite documented human rights abuses in the country.
"In Syria, imagine this, imagine this. (Clinton) called President Assad a ‘reformer.’ She called Assad a ‘different kind of leader,’" Christie said. "There’s now 400,000 now dead — think about that. Four hundred thousand dead at the hands of a man that Hillary defended."
The "reformer" quote comes from a March 27, 2011, interview with CBS host Bob Schieffer. During the interview, Clinton actually attributed the characterization to representatives from "both parties," not her own views.
"There is a different leader in Syria now," she said. "Many of the members of Congress of both parties who have gone to Syria in recent months have said they believe he's a reformer."
So she did use those words, mostly, but there is more to the story. When she used the word "reformer," Clinton was referencing the opinions of members of Congress who had interacted with the Syrian president and hoped he represented change for the country. And she said, "There is a different leader in Syria now," and not "a different kind of leader."
Christie is taking quotes by Clinton out of context, and ignoring historical events that followed, when Clinton denounced Assad and called for his exit. We rated his claim Half True.
The gender card
RNC co-chairwoman Sharon Day, of South Florida, called Clinton a hypocrite for playing the gender card.
"She repeatedly plays the gender card. In fact she boasts ‘deal me in.’ Well, Mrs. Clinton, consider yourself dealt in because as a senator you paid women less than the men in your office," Day said.
Day’s claim is hard to verify. A previous fact-check on this topic explored a Washington Free Beacon story that used expenditure report data to say Clinton paid her female Senate staffers 72 cents for every dollar earned by a male counterpart. However, this data was flawed, with one reason being that it excludes Senate employees who took leaves of absence, which is common for employees who leave for short periods to work on campaigns.
Clinton’s campaign responded to a previous fact-check about this with a 2015 BuzzFeed story that found the same median salary for both men and women — but there were more women than men working for Clinton every year.
The BuzzFeed story doesn’t fully answer the point Day raises, and neither do other data sets, so we rated this claim Mostly False.
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas — just not the capital
One of the more humorous parts of the evening came during the roll-call vote making Trump the official nominee, when Nevada GOP chairman Michael McDonald said Las Vegas was the state’s capital.
"From the great shores of Lake Tahoe to the most entertaining capital city, Las Vegas, Nevada," he said. "This time, what stays in Las Vegas will not stay in Las Vegas."
Er, no. Nevada’s capital is Carson City, not the vastly more populous Las Vegas.
McDonald probably misspoke, but that didn’t spare him from making his state the butt of a Jimmy Kimmel’s Twitter joke.
Nevada is actually one of the few states still using its capital from the territorial days. The rise of Las Vegas only came later during the 1960s.
We didn’t rate McDonald’s claim, but we did provide a quick Nevada history lesson here.
Who wrote Melania Trump’s speech?
The first night of the RNC ended with controversy when various news outlets noticed similarities between Melania Trump’s speech and a speech Michelle Obama gave in 2008. (We analyzed the similarities in the two speeches here.)
Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign manager, responded to the plagiarism allegations the morning of the convention’s second day.
He said Hillary Clinton’s campaign was the first to make the comparison to Obama’s address.
"The Clinton camp was the first to get it out there and try to say there was something untoward about the speech that Melania Trump gave," Manafort said. "It’s just another example, as far as we’re concerned, that when Hillary Clinton is threatened by a female, the first thing she does is try to destroy the person."
As it turns out, the Clinton campaign was not the first to break the story. Instead it was Jarrett Hill, a Los Angeles-based Twitter user who describes himself as an interior designer and a journalist. Hill has no connections to the Clinton campaign, he told PolitiFact.
In addition, the Clinton campaign has not issued a formal statement responding to the allegations.
We rated this claim False.