Trump says 'at no time before have voters faced a clearer choice' on final night of RNC

President Donald Trump speaks from the South Lawn of the White House on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2020, in Washington. Evan Vucci/AP

President Trump claimed that he has done more for the African American community than any other president since Abraham Lincoln.

Facts First: While we give Trump lots of latitude to express opinions, this one is simply ridiculous even if he is comparing himself only to previous presidents and excluding other Black heroes. It's absurd to say Lincoln is a "possible" exception; emancipating the slaves was obviously more important for Black Americans than anything Trump has done. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, monumental bills whose impact dwarfed the impact of any legislation Trump has signed.

You can make an argument that numerous additional presidents did more for Black Americans than Trump, but we'll stop there. It's worth noting, though, that Black people themselves do not, on the whole, agree with Trump's self-assessment. Trump has had a consistently abysmal approval rating with Black citizens -- just 4% in one recent Quinnipiac University poll, for example, versus 93% disapproval.

President Trump falsely claimed he passed the Veterans Choice program.

Facts First: The Veterans Choice bill, a bipartisan initiative led by Sens. Bernie Sanders and the late John McCain was signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2014. In 2018, Trump signed the VA Mission Act, which expanded and changed the Choice program.

Trump has told this lie more than 150 times.

President Donald Trump speaks from the South Lawn of the White House on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention on Thursday, Aug. 27, in Washington. AP Photo/Alex Brandon

Like Vice President Mike Pence a night before him, President Donald Trump restated his commitment to law enforcement and condemned the "rioting, looting, arson and violence" occurring in "Democrat-run cities."

He included Kenosha, Wisconsin, in the list of those cities. Kenosha has been gripped with protests and ongoing unrest following the police shooting of Jacob Blake — a 29-year-old Black man that was shot seven times in the back Sunday by an officer as he tried to enter an SUV where three of his children were waiting. 

The President was expected, in some form, to address the unrest in Kenosha in his speech tonight. It was unclear if he would make any statement of sympathy to Blake's family or Black Americans once again angered by police brutality. So far Trump has refused to answer questions about the incidents in Wisconsin or to say whether he watched the video of Blake being shot by police.

"There is violence and danger in the streets of many Democrat-run cities throughout America. This problem could easily be fixed if they wanted to. Just call, we're ready to go in, and we will take care of you, in a matter of hours. We have to wait for the call. It's too bad we have to, but we have to wait for the call," Trump said. "We must always have law and order. All federal crimes are being investigated, prosecuted, and punished to the fullest extent of the law," he continued.

Trump slammed Joe Biden, saying that last week during the Democratic National Convention, he and his supporters "remained completely silent about the rioters and criminals spreading mayhem in Democrat-run cities."

Trump used a portion of his speech to tout the work of law enforcement.

"We must remember that the overwhelming majority of police officers in this country, and that's the overwhelming majority, are noble, courageous, and honorable. We have to give law enforcement, our police, back their power," Trump said.

Watch:

President Donald Trump speaks from the South Lawn of the White House on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention on Thursday in Washington. Alex Brandon/AP

During his Thursday speech accepting the Republican nomination, President Donald Trump repeatedly claimed there would be a coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year, and at one point implied it could be available sooner.

“We are delivering lifesaving therapies, and will produce a vaccine before the end of the year, or maybe even sooner,” Trump said at one point. “We will defeat the virus, end the pandemic, and emerge stronger than ever before.”

Later, Trump again touted the progress of vaccine development, saying the US is “years ahead of what that been achieved before.”

“Nobody thought it could ever be done this fast,” Trump said. “We are producing them in advance, so that hundreds of millions of doses will be quickly available.”

“We will have a safe and effective vaccine this year,” Trump assured, “and together we will crush the virus.”

Vice President Mike Pence made similar claims. 

Facts First: Though there are several vaccine candidates in different phases of testing, there is no guarantee that the Food and Drug Administration will have approved a vaccine by the end of the year. And even once one is approved, it will likely still be many months before it's widely available across the US.

A vaccine developed by the biotechnology company Moderna and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is in the final phase of its clinical trial, after promising initial results.

In interviews last month, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of NIAID, made clear that while a vaccine could be approved by or possibly before November, as the President has previously proposed, it would likely not be available widely until "several months" into 2021.

You can read more about the proposed timeline and plans for a vaccine here. 

President Donald Trump delivers his acceptance speech for the Republican presidential nomination on the South Lawn of the White House on Thursday in Washington. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

President Donald Trump — speaking to a crowd of more than 1,000 supporters on the White House South Lawn that wasn’t socially distancing and many were not wearing masks — said Thursday night that unlike Joe Biden, his administration focuses “on the science, the facts and the data” to handle the coronavirus pandemic.

“If we had listened to Joe, hundreds of thousands more Americans would have died. … The cost of the Biden shutdown would be measured in increased drug overdoses, depression, alcohol addiction, suicides, heart attacks, economic devastation, job loss and much more. Joe Biden's plan is not a solution to the virus, but rather it’s a surrender to the virus,” Trump said during his Republican convention speech Thursday night.

“My administration has a very different approach. To save as many lives as possible, we are focusing on the science, the facts and the data. We are aggressively sheltering those at highest risk – especially the elderly – while allowing lower-risk Americans to safely return to work and to school," he continued.

 The President delivered his speech to a group of more than 1,000 people on the South Lawn of the White House. Many did not wear face masks and were seated close together.

According to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, “some” of the people in the audience were expected to be tested for coronavirus, but some attendees, like Sen. Lindsey Graham, told CNN they were not.

CNN reported earlier Thursday that the White House coronavirus task force was not consulted about convention plans for Trump's speech on the South Lawn, according to a senior administration official. Health experts on the task force, like National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, have been advising Americans to avoid large crowds during the pandemic.

And as CNN previously reported, in a shift that perplexed doctors, a former CDC director and a growing number of public health organizations, the CDC has changed its Covid-19 testing guidelines to say some people without symptoms may not need to be tested, even if they've been in close contact with someone known to have the virus.

A senior federal health official close to the process told CNN the sudden change in CDC Covid-19 testing guidance was the result of pressure from the Trump administration. 

Watch:

President Trump claimed NATO members had agreed to pay $130 billion more a year.

Facts First: NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg explained during a meeting with Trump on December 3, 2019, that by the end of 2020 non-US NATO members would have added a total of $130 billion to their defense budgets since 2016, not $130 billion per year. And this figure, does not take into account the possible impact of the current pandemic, NATO spokeswoman Peggy Beauplet noted in an email to CNN on Thursday morning. 

You can read more about Trump’s claims on NATO spending here

President Donald Trump delivers his acceptance speech for the Republican presidential nomination on the South Lawn of the White House on Thursday in Washington. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

President Trump claimed, “We have already built 300 miles of border wall.”

Facts First: This needs context. As of August 7, some 275 miles of barriers had been constructed on the US border with Mexico -- but just 5 of those miles were erected in places where no barriers had existed before, according to official statistics provided to CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez by US Customs and Border Protection. Of the remainder, 245 miles were erected in place of old barriers, while 25 miles of new “secondary wall” were erected to fortify primary barriers. 

The Trump-era replacement barriers are often much larger than the older ones they are replacing. But still, it’s worth noting that Trump has not erected 300 miles of wall where no barriers existed before.

President Donald Trump paid respect to medical professionals fighting the coronavirus pandemic with a standing ovation during the Republican National Convention.

Trump said he has "sadly lost friends and cherished loved ones to this horrible disease."

"As one nation, we mourn, we grieve and we hold in our hearts forever the lives that have been so tragically taken, so unnecessary. In their honor, we will unite and in their memory we will overcome," the President added.

The state of the pandemic in the US: An ensemble forecast published by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now projects more than 200,000 coronavirus deaths in the US by September 19.

The new projections, published Thursday, forecast 200,292 deaths by September 19, with a possible range of 195,824 to 207,269 deaths.

Watch:

President Donald Trump speaks from the South Lawn of the White House on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention on Thursday in Washington. Evan Vucci/AP

In his speech on the final night of the Republican National Convention, President Donald Trump attacked Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden for pointing out racial and economic disparities in the United States.

“At the Democrat National Convention, Joe Biden and his party repeatedly assailed America as a land of racial, economic and social injustice. So tonight, I ask you a simple question: How can the Democrat Party ask to lead our country when it spends so much time tearing down our country?” Trump said.

“In the left's backward view, they do not see America as the most free, just and exceptional nation on Earth. Instead, they see a wicked nation that must be punished for its sins. Our opponents say that redemption for you can only come from giving power to them. This is a tired anthem spoken by every repressive movement throughout history,” he added.

In his renewed vocal remarks in support for the law enforcement, he drew the distinction between himself and Biden for voters.

Trump also argued that Biden would not advocate for American jobs and the American way of life.

“Joe Biden is not a savior of America’s soul, he is the destroyer of America’s jobs, and if given the chance, he will be the destroyer of American greatness,” he said.

Watch: