Hillary Clinton became the first woman to be chosen as a major party’s presidential nominee on the second day of the Democratic National Convention.
Her husband and former president Bill Clinton gave the night’s marquee address, taking the crowd on a trip down memory lane that started with how they met and ended with his case for why she would make a strong president.
“For this time Hillary is uniquely qualified to seize the opportunities and reduce the risk we take, and she is still the best darn change-maker I have ever known,” Bill Clinton said. “You could drop her into any trouble spot, come back in a month, and some way, somehow, she will have made it better. That’s just who she is.”
As Bernie Sanders supporters continued to protest Clinton’s win, Sanders made a motion to suspend the rules during the roll call vote, allowing all delegates to vote for Clinton.
Before Bill Clinton took the stage, mothers of black Americans whose deaths sparked nationwide demonstrations said they supported Hillary Clinton after meeting with her to talk about their concerns about gun violence and criminal justice reforms. The “Mothers of the Movement” included the mothers of Sandra Bland, Trayvon Martin, and Eric Garner, among others.
Hillary Clinton “doesn’t build walls around her heart,” said Lucia McBath, whose son, Jordan Davis, was killed in 2012 following a dispute over loud music. “Not only did she listen to our problems, she invited us to become a part of the solution, and that’s what we are going to do.”
We fact-checked Bill Clinton’s address, as well as other speakers from the night. (Here’s our rundown of the DNC’s first night.)
Hillary Clinton and health care
Bill Clinton bragged about his wife’s effort to tackle health care reform with a claim about expanding health care to children.
“In 1997, Congress passed the Children’s Health Insurance Program, still an important part of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. It insures more than 8 million kids,” Clinton said. “There are a lot of other things in that bill she got done, piece by piece, pushing that rock up the hill.”
According to Medicaid, CHIP insures more than 8 million children. The late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) received much of the credit for CHIP, because he shepherded the legislation through a Republican-controlled Congress, and Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch was the lead Republican co-sponsor.
In 2007, Kennedy vouched for Clinton’s vital role in CHIP, saying, “The children’s health program wouldn’t be in existence today if we didn’t have Hillary pushing for it from the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.”
That notion was seconded by Nick Littlefield, a senior health adviser to Kennedy at the time.
Point being, Clinton did work behind the scenes to create the program to offer health care to children, but the former president tiptoes around the scope of his wife’s role. We rated this claim Mostly True.
Trump on abortion
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) contrasted the records of Trump and running mate Mike Pence on women’s rights with that of Hillary Clinton.
“Her opponent said a woman should be ‘punished’ for exercising her right to choose,” Boxer said, “and then picked a running mate who believes Roe v. Wade belongs, to quote him, ‘in the ash heap of history.’”
The first part of Boxer’s statement refers to a March interview between Trump and MSNBC’s Chris Matthews. Trump did say “there has to be some form of punishment” for abortion—if it were illegal.
Matthews pressed him for clarity, saying “for the woman,” and Trump responded, “Yeah, there has to be some form.”
He quickly walked back his comments that same day, saying he meant the doctors who perform abortions and not the women who receive them would be punished. He said later that month it was a “convoluted discussion” and that he might have “misspoke.”
Trump’s comments on abortion have been all over the place. There’s also no evidence that “punishing women” is a long-standing belief or policy position Trump holds. For missing this context, we rate Boxer’s claim Half True.
Human trafficking
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) commended Clinton’s compassion for victims of human trafficking and made a point about how widespread the issue is around the world.
“Human trafficking is the third-biggest criminal enterprise in the world,” she said.
It’s difficult to put a dollar amount on illegal activity, and reports varied on how much human trafficking actually costs.
A U.N. agency estimated the total value of human trafficking at $150 billion. The comparable estimates for the drug trade range from about $280 billion to $420 billion. There is one dicey estimate for counterfeiting of $250 billion.
By those measures, human trafficking does rank third. However, all of these numbers hinge on sweeping assumptions and limited data.
We rated this claim Mostly True.
For more fact-checks from Day Two, visit PolitiFact.com.