Fact check: RFK Jr. claimed Biden was mentioned just twice at the RNC. It was nearly 400 times

By Daniel Dale, CNN

Washington (CNN) — During a Friday speech announcing the suspension of his independent presidential campaign, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a wildly inaccurate claim about the extent to which President Joe Biden was mentioned at the Republican National Convention in July.

Kennedy sought to portray the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this week as insufficiently focused on substance and overly fixated on style and on former President Donald Trump, the Republican candidate to whom Kennedy said he was throwing his support.

Kennedy said: “In Chicago, a string of Democratic speakers mentioned Donald Trump 147 times just on the first day … Who needs a policy when you have Trump to hate? In contrast, at the RNC convention, President Biden was mentioned only twice in four days.”

Facts First: Kennedy’s claim about Biden mentions at the Republican National Convention is not even close to true. A New York Times analysis of all the speeches at the RNC found that the word “Biden” was spoken a total of 393 times. The Republican vice presidential nominee, Sen. JD Vance, said the word “Biden” 12 times in his own convention speech.

Trump himself said “Biden” twice in his convention speech (during a single reference), but Kennedy’s claim was about the Republicans’ four-day gathering as a whole.

The false claim that Biden was mentioned a total of twice over the four days of the Republican convention has been circulating on social media this week. It is not clear where the claim originated, but a quick transcript search of the speeches made by just some RNC speakers proves it is inaccurate.

For example, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said “Biden” nine times in his convention speech; former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said “Biden” eight times; Nikki Haley, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, said “Biden” seven times, as did Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York and Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida; Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. said “Biden” four times, as did US Senate candidate Kari Lake of Arizona.

And these figures include only explicit mentions of Biden. Various convention speakers bashed the president without invoking his name.

CNN has not conducted or seen a thorough independent analysis of the words used at the Democratic National Convention, which concluded yesterday.

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