Fact-checking the Republican midterm convention night 1

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Some of the speakers at the Republican midterm convention on Wednesday made false or misleading claims.

Here is a fact check of some of their remarks:

From CNN’s Daniel Dale

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise claimed in his convention speech, “Just last week, Democrats voted to allow illegals to vote in our federal elections.”

That’s not true. There was no congressional vote last week on whether to change the law that makes it illegal for non-citizens, including undocumented immigrants, to vote in federal elections.

Scalise was referring to the House vote last week on a non-binding Republican resolution – not a law – that included five separate statements. The first said the House “condemns and denounces socialism in all its forms.” The third “reiterates the notion that American elections are for American citizens only.” The fifth calls for the passage of Trump’s favored elections bill, the SAVE America Act , which contains various provisions opposed by many Democrats.

The vast majority of Democrats voted “no,” but they could have done so for numerous reasons other than wanting undocumented immigrants to be able to vote. Again, nothing in the resolution would have changed voting law.

Some speakers took quotes from Democratic midterm candidates out of context.

On Troy Jackson: Sen. Tim Scott said Maine Democratic Senate candidate Troy Jackson “said he would’ve run as a communist.” But Jackson wasn’t expressing any support for communism. Rather, he was making a joke while trying to explain in 2017 why he used to be a Republican politician.

Jackson said he had just wanted to get into the state legislature any way he could in order to fix local problems. In what even the conservative New York Post described as a joke, Jackson added, “I would’ve ran as anything, I would’ve ran as a communist.” The Post reported that the comment was greeted with laughs.

On James Talarico: Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso said Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico “says he would lay out a welcome mat at our southern border.” Talarico has frequently spoken of laying out a border “welcome mat,” but Barrasso left out the second, more conservative part of Talarico’s favored two-part immigration metaphor; Talarico keeps saying the border should be like a front porch with “a welcome mat out front and a lock on the door.”

Here’s how Talarico explains the comment on his website : “We can both welcome the stranger – refugees, asylum seekers, and folks who want to contribute to our economy and pursue the American dream – and we can keep people out who mean to do us harm.”

From CNN’s Daniel Dale and Tami Luhby

Several convention speakers, including South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and Reps. Monica De La Cruz and Brandon Gill of Texas, repeated President Donald Trump’s frequent claim that he achieved “no tax on Social Security.” He didn’t.

The big domestic policy bill Trump signed in 2025 did create an additional, temporary $6,000-per-year tax deduction for individuals age 65 and older (which phases out for individuals earning $75,000 per year or more), but as the White House has implicitly acknowledged , millions of Social Security recipients will continue to pay taxes on their benefits even before the temporary new deduction expires after 2028.

The Social Security Administration said in 2025 that “the bill ensures that nearly 90% of Social Security beneficiaries will no longer pay federal income taxes on their benefits.”

This article will be updated with additional items.

Kent Nishimura/AFP/Getty Images

周三共和党中期选举大会上的一些发言者发表了虚假或误导性言论。

以下是对他们部分言论的事实核查：

来自 CNN 的丹尼尔·戴尔

众议院多数党领袖史蒂夫·斯卡利斯在大会演讲中声称：“就在上周，民主党人投票允许非法移民在我们的联邦选举中投票。”

那不是事实。上周国会并未就修改禁止非公民（包括无证移民）在联邦选举中投票的法律进行投票。

斯卡利斯指的是上周众议院就一项不具约束力的共和党决议（并非法律）进行的投票，该决议包含五项声明。第一项声明称，众议院“谴责并反对一切形式的社会主义”。第三项声明“重申美国选举仅供美国公民参与”。第五项声明呼吁通过特朗普力推的选举法案——《拯救美国法案》（SAVE America Act），该法案包含多项条款，遭到许多民主党人的反对。

绝大多数民主党人投了反对票，但他们这样做可能有很多其他原因，并非仅仅是为了赋予无证移民投票权。再次强调，该决议中的任何内容都不会改变现行的投票法。

一些发言者断章取义地引用了民主党中期选举候选人的话。

关于特洛伊·杰克逊：参议员蒂姆·斯科特称，缅因州民主党参议员候选人特洛伊·杰克逊“曾说过他会以共产主义者的身份参选”。但杰克逊并非表达对共产主义的支持。相反，他只是在2017年试图解释自己为何曾是共和党政客时开的一个玩笑。

杰克逊说，他只是想尽一切办法进入州议会，以便解决当地问题。就连保守派媒体《纽约邮报》也认为杰克逊的这番话是个玩笑，他说：“我什么都愿意竞选，哪怕是当个共产主义者。”《邮报》报道称，这番话引来一片哄笑。

关于詹姆斯·塔拉里科：参议院多数党党鞭约翰·巴拉索表示，德克萨斯州民主党参议员候选人詹姆斯·塔拉里科“声称他会在南部边境铺上欢迎地毯”。塔拉里科经常谈到在边境铺上“欢迎地毯”，但巴拉索忽略了塔拉里科偏爱的两部分移民比喻中更为保守的后半部分；塔拉里科一直强调，边境应该像一个前廊，“门前铺着欢迎地毯，门上锁”。

以下是塔拉里科在其网站上对该评论的解释：“我们既可以欢迎陌生人——难民、寻求庇护者以及那些想要为我们的经济做出贡献并追求美国梦的人——也可以将那些意图伤害我们的人拒之门外。”

来自 CNN 的丹尼尔·戴尔和塔米·卢比

包括南卡罗来纳州参议员蒂姆·斯科特和德克萨斯州众议员莫妮卡·德拉克鲁兹和布兰登·吉尔在内的几位大会发言人重复了唐纳德·特朗普总统经常声称的“不对社会保障征税”的说法。但他并没有做到。

特朗普在 2025 年签署的重大国内政策法案确实为 65 岁及以上的个人设立了每年 6000 美元的额外临时税收减免（对于年收入 75000 美元或以上的个人，该减免将逐步取消），但正如白宫含蓄地承认的那样，即使在 2028 年临时新减免到期之前，数百万社会保障金领取者仍将继续为其福利缴纳税款。

社会保障署在 2025 年表示，“该法案确保近 90% 的社会保障受益人将不再需要为其福利缴纳联邦所得税。”

本文将更新更多内容。