Republican Convention 2016: Fact-Checking the Speakers

ABC News is fact-checking selected speakers at the 2016 Republican National Convention taking place in Cleveland, Ohio.

This page will be updated with new fact checks throughout the week:

DAY TWO: Tuesday, July 19

Fact Check: Clinton Paid Women Less Than Men

Claim: Hillary Clinton's Senate office and the Clinton Foundation each paid its male employees more than it paid women

Rating: Questionable, but supported by some data. The claim about Clinton's Senate office is supported by data, but it doesn't include other work women were doing. The claim about the Clinton Foundation is true about high-raking employees, but it doesn't count lower-level employees.

Background: On its face, both claims are supported by data, but those data have been thrown into question by incompleteness or counter-claims by Clinton's staff.

Actress and businesswoman Kimberlin Brown said, "In both Sen. Clinton's office and the Clinton Foundation, men have been paid better than women."

In Clinton's Senate office, the Free Beacon found in a study of then-publicly-available salary data, women were paid 72 cents on the dollar, compared to men. As PolitiFact notes, Clinton aides noted that some staffers took leave from Clinton's Senate office to do work for PACs or campaigns, and when that other work is taken into account, female employees were paid the same as men. For instance, PolitiFact notes, Huma Abedin made $20k working for Clinton's Senate office but $150k working for her campaign, in 2008. Other staffers worked for assorted Clinton political groups.

For the Clinton Foundation, higher pay for men is evident in its 990 forms, PolitiFact has pointed out-although those forms only list salaries for high-level employees. In each year, about 8 to 12 employee salaries are listed for the foundation. Women were paid about 77 cents on the dollar.

Gender pay gap is important at the lower end of the wage scale, too, and it's important to show a full picture. These data don't do that. At the same time, the publicly available data do show the Clinton foundation paying men more than women and do support the claim.

Fact Check: Clinton Against and For Sanctuary Cities

Claim: Hillary Clinton was against sanctuary cities before supporting them

Rating: Mostly true. Clinton criticized San Francisco for not facilitating the deportation of a man who would eventually murder a woman. Later, her spokesperson claimed Clinton supports so-called "sanctuary cities." The term refers to municipalities that do not always pass undocumented immigrants onto federal immigration authorities for deportation.

Background: Mitch McConnell said of Clinton, "She used to be against sanctuary cities. Then she claimed to be for them."

In the wake of a case in San Francisco last summer where it was discovered that an undocumented man who killed a woman had been deported in several instances, but was able to stay in the city after returning and avoiding deportation, Clinton said on June 7, 2015 to CNN, "Well, what should be done is any city should listen to the Department of Homeland Security, which as I understand it, urged them to deport this man again after he got out of prison another time. Here's a case where we've deported, we've deported, we've deported. He ends back up in our country and I think the city made a mistake. The city made a mistake, not to deport someone that the federal government strongly felt should be deported."

On June 9, a Clinton spokesperson clarified Clinton's position, saying "Hillary Clinton believes that sanctuary cities can help further public safety, and she has defended those policies going back years."

Fact Check: Hillary Clinton Is an 'Apologist' for Boko Haram

Claim: Hillary Clinton is an "apologist" for Boko Haram. She and Obama responded to its mass kidnapping with a "hashtag campaign."

Rating: False. It is based on a true fact, that Clinton's State Department declined to list Boko Haram as a terrorist group out of concern that doing so would raise the group's profile. But publicly Clinton has denounced the group, and she was not Secretary of State when the kidnapping happened.

Chris Christie said, "In Nigeria, Hillary Clinton amazingly fought for two years to keep an al-Qaeda affiliate off the terrorist watch list ... The schoolgirls are still missing today. What was the solution from the Obama/Clinton team? A hashtag campaign! Hillary Clinton, as an apologist for an Al-Qaeda affiliate in Nigeria resulting in the capture of innocent young women, guilty or not guilty?"

Background: In 2011, Hillary Clinton's State Dept. declined to list Boko Haram, the terrorist group that would abduct more than 200 schoolgirls from Chibok in 2014, as a foreign terrorist organization, against the recommendations of DOJ, FBI, CIA, and lawmakers, Josh Rogin reported for The Daily Beast in 2014.

That move, however, appears to have been based on a disagreement over whether listing Boko Haram would elevate its status. A State Department official said as much to Rogin in the same story. The assertion that she is an "apologist" appears to be a rhetorical exaggeration criticizing that decision. But publicly, Clinton has denounced Boko Haram.

As a former State Dept. official points out, the criticism of an Obama/Clinton response to Boko Haram's 2014 kidnapping is anachronistic, as Clinton was no longer secretary of State when the kidnapping happened:

Fact Check: Hillary Clinton Lied About Her Own Name

Claim: Hillary Clinton lied about why her parents named her "Hillary"

Rating: Questionable. It's not clear that Clinton "lied," but Clinton repeated a story, which turned out not to be true but rather "family legend," about being named after Everest climber Sir Edmund Hillary.

Background: In 1995, after visiting Nepal, Clinton recounted that her mother had "always told me" she had named Clinton after Sir Edmund Hillary.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said, of Clinton, "She even lied about why her parents named her Hillary."

It turned out that wasn't true, and the New York Times added a correction in 2006 after referencing it as fact:

"An article on Wednesday about an addition to the Clinton household in Washington - Dorothy Rodham, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's mother - mistakenly perpetuated a story that Mrs. Rodham had named her daughter for the mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary. That statement was based on a 1995 interview with Mrs. Clinton during her visit to Nepal, in which she met Sir Edmund and related the story, as told to her by her mother. As it turns out, the tale was just a family legend. An article today takes a look at how that yarn came to be."

The New York Times followed up with a story noting that Sir Edmund and his Sherpa guide reached the Everest summit in 1953-six years after Hillary Clinton was born in 1947.

"It was a sweet family story her mother shared to inspire greatness in her daughter, to great results I might add," Clinton campaign spokeswoman Jennifer Hanley told the Times in 2006.

Fact Check: Democrats in the Senate Blocked Zika and Defense Funding Bills

Claim: Senate Democrats blocked Zika and defense funding bills

Rating: Technically true, but omits key facts.

Background: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said: "As we sit here tonight, a terrifying mosquito-borne illness threatens expectant mothers and their babies along the Southern Coast. And just last week, Clinton Democrats in the Senate blocked a bill aimed at eradicating that virus before it spread. They blocked a defense funding bill, a bill that would support the brave men and women who are right now defending us overseas."

While it's technically true Senate Democrats blocked both bills, the reality is more complicated.

Senate Democrats rejected the Zika bill because Republicans included a provision that would have effectively excluded Planned Parenthood from receiving zika funding, as well as a provision to allow confederate flags to be flown at VA hospitals, which would overturn existing law. Senators will vote again on the zika bill on their first day back in session in September.

On the Defense Department funding bill, Senate Democrats voted--almost as a bloc--to defeat the bill as part of their pledge to block any spending bill until Leader McConnell promises to abide by last year's budget agreement and refrain from adding partisan, so-called "poison pill" provisions to bills.

Fact Check: Emails Clinton Sent to Other Individuals From Private Email Server Were Hacked

Claim: Emails of people with whom Clinton communicated were hacked.

Rating: True. The FBI could not confirm whether Clinton's private email server was hacked, but it is true that the emails of others to whom Clinton sent emails from her private server were hacked.

Background: Michael Mukasey, former United States attorney general, said: "Although her system was so remarkably primitive the FBI could not figure out whether or not it had been hacked, we know that the emails of people with whom she communicated were hacked."

This is true. In the spring of 2013, Sid Blumenthal's email was hacked, which revealed the existence of Clinton's private server.

So, while it is true that emails Clinton sent to other individuals from her private email server were hacked, James Comey, in announcing the FBI's decision, said that investigators could not conclude whether Clinton's email server was hacked for certain. He said that "it is possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clinton's personal e-mail account."

Fact Check: Clinton Said "What Difference...Does It Make" About Deaths of Americans in Benghazi

Claim: Clinton said that "what difference, at this point, does it make?" in discussing the deaths of Americans in Benghazi.

Rating: False. Clinton said this at a hearing in response to a question about the cause of these American's deaths. This was not a question she asked about their deaths writ large.

Background: Michael Mukasey said in his speech: "About her emails we have to ask ourselves the infamous question that she asked about the death of four Americans in Benghazi - 'what difference, at this point, does it make?'"

At a hearing, Clinton said "With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest or because or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided they'd go kill some Americans? What difference, at this point, does it make? It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again, senator."

In context, Clinton was voicing her frustration about questions over the cause of these Americans' deaths, but not about whether the deaths themselves "made a difference," as Mukasey suggests in his speech.

DAY ONE: Monday, July 18

Fact Check: ISIS Present in All 50 States

Claim: ISIS terrorists are present in all 50 states

Rating: Questionable. Rep. Michael McCaul said that there have been ISIS-related investigations in all 50 states. In this sense, there have been investigations into possible ISIS supporters in all 50 states, but it is not possible to confirm whether ISIS "terrorists" are actually "present."

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) said that "In fact, according to the FBI, ISIS is present in all 50 states. Think about that for a moment. Terrorists from ISIS are in every one of our 50 states."

Background: Bret Baier asked Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee in March: "At one point there was talk that there were investigations into ISIS in all 50 states. Is that still the case?" McCaul responded: "That's still the case. We've arrested over 80 ISIS followers."

Last year, James Comey said that the FBI had opened investigations into individuals "in various stages of radicalizing" in all 50 states, in connection to concerns about homegrown terrorism.

Radicalization often happens online and from afar, according to recent studies. Being in "various stages of radicalization" does not necessarily mean that person is an ISIS member, or a "terrorist" by definition. The New York Times has profiled people in such stages, such as a young woman in Washington state who was attracted to an ISIS community on Twitter but did not act on her affinity for ISIS recruiters.

Comey's and McCaul's statements generally support Ernst's statement, but the senator's characterization is broader than what we can factually conclude.

Fact Check: American Trade Deficits with China and South Korea Have Grown Manyfold

Claim: US trade deficits with South Korea have doubled, deficits with China have risen fivefold

Rating: Mostly true. The S. Korea deficit has indeed more than doubled since a free-trade agreement in '11. The U.S. trade deficit with China has only risen threefold since the permanent normalization of trade relations in '00, adjusting for inflation.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said trade deals "have not worked for the American people. When those agreements were signed, President Clinton and Obama promised our dangerous trade deficits with China and Korea would be reduced, but the deficit with China has increased fivefold and the deficit with Korea has more than doubled in just four years."

Background: Criticizing trade deals has been a central argument for Trump and his backers. Here, Sessions's statement is mostly accurate.

After Obama enacted a free-trade agreement with South Korea in 2011, the U.S. deficit with South Korea has grown from $-13.2B in 2011 to $-28.3B in 2015, the last full year of statistics maintained by the U.S. Census Bureau. Even adjusting for inflation, Sessions is correct.

After Bill Clinton signed a law granting normal trade relations to China in 2000, the U.S./China deficit has grown from $-83.8B in 2000 to $-367.1B in 2015. In nominal dollars, Sessions is correct, but adjusting for inflation, he is wrong: According to a BLS inflation adjustor, $83.3B in 2000 dollars are worth $115.3B in 2015 dollars-an increase of just over fourfold. Taking inflation into account, the increase is closer to threefold.

Other trade agreements present a mixed bag. Trade deficits with Mexico have skyrocketed from a surplus of $1.6B in '93, when NAFTA was passed, to $-60.6B in 2015. CAFTA deals with Honduras and El Salvador have turned deficits to surpluses. The 2011 deal with Panama hasn't meant much change.

Fact Check: Clinton Supports Influx of Syrian Refugees

Claim: Hillary Clinton supports "surge of Syrian refugees"

Rating: True. Hillary Clinton said she would like to move from President Obama's goal of 10,000 Syrian refugees to 65,000

Rep. Mike McCaul, the Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said: "And now Hillary Clinton is promising more of the same. Open borders, executive amnesty, and a surge of Syrian refugees."

Background: After President Obama directed his administration in September 2015 to accept at least 10,000 additional Syrian refugees, Hillary Clinton went further, saying she'd like to accept more than six times that figure. "I would like to see us move from what is a good start with 10,000 to 65,000."

Fact Check: Hillary Clinton's Immigration Policy Promises "Open Borders"

Claim: Hillary Clinton's immigration policy promises "open borders"

Rating: False. Clinton's immigration plan calls for U.S. border protection and the deportation of violent criminals.

Rep. Mike McCaul, the Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said: "Tonight, we heard powerful testimony from people who have been devastated by Obama's reckless immigration policies. Haven't we had enough? And now Hillary Clinton is promising more of the same. Open borders, executive amnesty, and a surge of Syrian refugees."

Background: A signature feature of Donald Trump's tough-on-immigration stance is his promise to build a wall on the southern border of the United States and make Mexico pay for it. To underscore the contrast between himself and Hillary Clinton, Trump has caricatured her immigration policy by saying it would create "open borders." This claim was ruled false by Politifact and repeated last night by McCaul.

In fact, Clinton's plan for immigration reform includes a call to protect U.S. borders, and a focus on "detaining and deporting those individuals who pose a violent threat to public safety." While on the campaign trail, she's also touted her support for border security as a Senator. "I voted numerous times when I was a senator to spend money to build a barrier to try to prevent illegal immigrants from coming in. And I do think you have to control your borders."

Fact Check: Hillary Clinton lied about the cause of the Benghazi attack

Claim: Hillary Clinton lied to families of Benghazi victims, telling them the attack was inspired by protests of a controversial video

Rating: Questionable. Clinton disputes Patricia Smith's claim that Clinton told her that a video was the reason for her son's death.

"When I saw Hillary Clinton at Sean's coffin ceremony just days later, she looked me squarely in the eye and told me a video was responsible," said Pat Smith, mother of Benghazi victim Sean Smith.

Background: At a Washington Post-Univision debate in March, Jorge Ramos showed Clinton a clip of Pat Smith speaking on Fox News, in which she said that Clinton and other administration officials "all told me it was a video when they knew, they knew it was not a video" in explaining the reason for the Benghazi attack. Ramos asked: "Secretary Clinton, did you lie to them?"

Clinton responded: "I certainly can't even imagine the grief that she has for losing her son. But she's wrong. She's absolutely wrong. I and everybody in the administration -- all the people she named: the president, the vice president, Susan Rice -- we were scrambling to get information that was changing literally by the hour. And when we had information, we made it public. But then sometimes we had to go back and say we have new information that contradicts it."

Vox captured this moment from the debate:

State Deptartment emails obtained by ABC News in 2013 did show a changing story about the Benghazi attack, as administration talking points were developed. All versions of those talking points did include reference to protests inspiring the attack, but references to CIA warnings of a terrorist threat, and the CIA's belief that a terrorist group had been involved in the attack, were removed.

Fact Check: U.S. Military Responders Were Ordered to "Stand Down" During the 2012 Benghazi Attack

Claim: U.S. military responders were ordered to "stand down" during the 2012 Benghazi attack

Rating: Highly Questionable. Every investigation ever done on Benghazi concluded there was no "stand down order."

John Tiegen, one of the six U.S. military responders to the 2012 Benghazi attack, said: "We immediately got our gear ready to go, got the vehicles ready and on three separate occasions, we got told to wait by the chief of base Bob and we got told to stand down. Next thing we know we hear the State Department over the radio saying 'Hey, if you guys don't get here we are all going to die!" Stand down order be damned, the consulate's under siege, we took off we left, we weren't waiting no more."

Background: Republicans often cite the 2012 Benghazi attack that killed four Americans, including a U.S. ambassador, as an emblem of the national security failures of the Obama Administration and the State Department under Sec. Clinton. One of the more politically potent claims is that the CIA station chief in Benghazi ordered U.S. military responders to "stand down" as the attack on the U.S. Consulate and CIA annex was ongoing.

But according to ABC News' Justin Fishel, every investigation ever done on Benghazi has concluded there was no "stand down order," including the House Intelligence report and the most recent House Select Committee on Benghazi, an investigation which lasted two years and cost more than $7 million.

Yet even as investigators said no stand down order was given, some people who've claimed to have direct knowledge have furthered this claim, which was also portrayed in the movie "13 Hours." Former Special Forces Officer Kris Paronto, one of the CIA contractors who fought that night, told Politico in January: "There is no sensationalism in that: We were told to 'stand down. [...] Those words were used verbatim - 100 percent."

Fact Check: No One Held Accountable for Operation Fast & Furious

Claim: 'No one was ever held accountable' for Fast & Furious

Rating: False. Some at DOJ were punished over the controversial gun-tracking program.

Kent Terry, the brother of slain border patrol agent Brian Terry, said: "Two weapons recovered from the scene were traced back to Obama's failed 'Fast and Furious' gun-tracking operation. Guns were used against Americans on American soil, and yet no one in [the] Obama administration has been held accountable."

Background: Terry's death is a significant point of criticism in the scandal over the Department of Justice's so-called "Fast and Furious" program to track firearms sales to violent Mexican drug cartels. Two guns linked to that program were found at the scene of Terry's 2010 murder.

Critics called for more severe measures, but some officials faced consequences. A DOJ Office of Inspector General report in 2012 recommended disciplinary and administrative review for 14 DOJ and ATF officials, including the head of DOJ's criminal division. After the report's release, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jason Weinstein resigned for failing to share information on the program with top DOJ officials. In 2011, three ATF officials were reassigned, resigned, or otherwise left ATF in a shakeup.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) did raise questions in 2015 about why an ATF agent had not been fired for whistleblower abuse after that consequence had been recommended, The Washington Times reported.

"Fast and Furious," the ATF operation that caused a scandal for attorney general Eric Holder and the Obama administration, was a program to track guns trafficked to violent criminal gangs in Mexico. The operation went awry as U.S. agents were attacked with U.S. weapons and civilians were massacred with the guns, according to reporting by Univision's Investigative Unit in 2012.

Fact Check: Security Denied in Benghazi

Claim: 'All security had been pulled from the embassy' in Benghazi

Rating: False. Security requests were denied, but there was U.S. security in Benghazi. The consular facility in Benghazi, not the embassy in Tripoli, was attacked.

"All security had been pulled from the embassy, he explained, and when he asked why, he never received a response," said Patricia Smith, the mother of Sean Smith, who was one of four Americans killed at the American consular facility in Benghazi, Libya.

Background: The State Department did deny requests for additional security in Libya, but it is not accurate to say "all" security was pulled.

Internal emails obtained by ABC in 2012 showed requests for additional security being denied. The security team at the embassy, in Tripoli, wanted to retain a DC-3 airplane for security purposes. Emails reflected that a State Dept. official denied the request.

But there was security at the facility in Benghazi, and there was a fight when the facility was attacked, ABC's Justin Fishel notes.

ABC News' Justin Fishel and Ali Rogin contributed to this report.