Manufacturing Political Spin

For decades, politicians have been putting political spin on the number of manufacturing jobs created or lost in the United States.

The number of manufacturing jobs peaked in June 1979 and have been largely in decline ever since -- rising and falling after recessions, including the Great Recession of 2007-2009 and the pandemic-induced recession in 2020, but never getting back to the levels of the late 1970s.

This campaign season has been no exception, as Deputy Managing Editor Robert Farley wrote about this week. 

As Rob writes, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris each claim they helped to revive American manufacturing and that the other has hurt it.

But both candidates cherry-picked data points to underscore their arguments. 

Trump attacked Harris because the U.S. has lost 13,000 manufacturing jobs this year, while ignoring the fact that the U.S. overall has added  765,000 manufacturing jobs during the Biden administration. 

Harris, meanwhile, has attacked Trump because on his watch "America lost tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs." But that ignores the reason for the job losses -- the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Both sides were measuring the state of U.S. manufacturing in terms of jobs. But, as Rob writes, there are other measurements to gauge the health of the manufacturing industry, such as productivity, real output and wages relative to nonmanufacturing jobs.

Rob examined those other numbers and talked to economic experts for a deeper look at the state of the manufacturing industry, and the Biden administration's attempts to revive it. 

For more, read Rob's story, "Trump vs. Harris on U.S. Manufacturing."

Reader: Which president is responsible for negotiating the Afghan withdrawal plan?

FactCheck.org Director Eugene Kiely: We wrote about this topic in our article, “Timeline of U.S. Withdrawal from Afghanistan.”

As we wrote, the Trump administration on Feb. 29, 2020, negotiated a withdrawal agreement with the Taliban (not the Afghan government) that freed 5,000 imprisoned Taliban soldiers and set May 1, 2021, as the date for a full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. 

The agreement included two classified annexes that set the conditions for a gradual U.S. withdrawal. In a speech on the day the agreement was signed, then-President Donald Trump said the withdrawal of U.S. troops was contingent on the "Taliban’s action against al-Qaeda and other terrorists who could threaten us."

About a month later, then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Taliban also pledged in the classified documents not to attack U.S. troops and coalition forces or launch “high-profile attacks,” including in Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals. “[T]he Taliban have signed up to a whole series of conditions,” Milley said at the time. 

The Trump administration kept to the pact, reducing U.S. troop levels from about 13,000 to 2,500, even though the Taliban continued to attack Afghan government forces and welcomed al-Qaeda terrorists into the Taliban leadership.

Ultimately, the timing of the withdrawal was made by President Joe Biden, who delayed the May 1, 2021, withdrawal date set by Trump. The Biden administration set Aug. 31, 2021, as the new date for a full withdrawal of U.S. troops, despite obvious signs that the Taliban weren’t complying with the agreement and had a stated goal to create an “Islamic government” in Afghanistan after the U.S. left, even if it meant it had to “continue our war to achieve our goal.”

On July 6, 2021, the U.S. military confirmed that it had pulled out of Bagram Airfield, its largest airfield in Afghanistan. On Aug. 6, 2021, the Taliban took control of its first province — the capital of Nimroz province in Afghanistan — despite the agreement it signed with the U.S. By Aug. 15, Taliban fighters had entered the Afghanistan capital Kabul, and took control of the country. 

Wrapping Up

Here's what else we've got for you this week:

• "FactChecking Harris’ CNN Interview": In her first media interview as the Democratic presidential candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris stretched the facts on her past stance on fracking and the number of clean energy jobs created by recent legislation.
• "Harris Has Not Flipped on Trump Border Wall": The Trump campaign wants voters to know that Vice President Kamala Harris claims to have flipped and now supports the Trump border wall — but they don’t want you to believe she’ll actually follow through. That’s misleading.
• "Misleading Democratic Ad in Nevada on ‘Sunsetting Medicare and Social Security’": Sam Brown, the Republican Senate candidate in Nevada, has publicly supported cutting federal spending in ways that experts say would require deep cuts in popular programs. But his Democratic opponent goes too far in a TV ad that claims Brown “embraced sunsetting Medicare and Social Security.” 
• "League of Conservation Voters": A profile of a pro-environment nonprofit with an affiliated PAC and super PAC. 
• "American Bridge 21st Century/AB PAC": A profile of a liberal hybrid PAC that conducts opposition research to aid Democratic candidates and organizations.

• "Trump califica una revisión rutinaria de las cifras de empleo como una ‘mentira’": Cada año, la Oficina de Estadísticas Laborales (BLS, por sus siglas en inglés) revisa sus cifras mensuales de empleo, que provienen de una encuesta a empleadores, basándose en información más completa que obtiene de registros estatales. Pero el expresidente Donald Trump calificó la revisión de las cifras de empleo de este año como una “mentira total”, afirmando sin fundamento que “la administración Harris/Biden ha sido sorprendida manipulando fraudulentamente las estadísticas laborales”.
• "Las actividades de preparación para una pandemia de gripe aviar no son prueba de una conspiración": La circulación de la gripe aviar H5N1 en animales e infecciones limitadas en humanos han provocado actividades de preparación contra la gripe, como el almacenamiento de vacunas. Publicaciones en redes sociales han insinuado sin fundamento que estos esfuerzos prueban que una nueva versión del virus derivada de un laboratorio va a causar una pandemia, o incluso que existe una conspiración para liberar la gripe aviar de un laboratorio. 
• "Walz tergiversa algunas afirmaciones sobre trabajadores": Al pronunciar un discurso en una conferencia sindical en California, el gobernador de Minnesota, Tim Walz, estrechó los hechos en varias afirmaciones relacionadas con el trabajo y los sindicatos. 
• "Trump engaña sobre el coste de los cargadores para vehículos eléctricos": En discursos recientes, el expresidente Donald Trump ha dicho repetidamente que el gobierno de Biden ha gastado 9.000 millones de dólares en construir solo ocho estaciones de carga para vehículos eléctricos, o incluso solo ocho cargadores. Eso es falso. 
• "La falsa afirmación de Trump de que Harris se reunió con Putin": En febrero de 2022, la vicepresidenta Kamala Harris asistió a una conferencia anual de seguridad en Alemania para hablar con líderes europeos sobre la agresión rusa hacia Ucrania y otros temas mundiales. Harris no fue a Rusia y no hay pruebas de que se reuniera con el presidente ruso Vladimir Putin, contrariamente a una afirmación sin fundamento hecha por el expresidente Donald Trump. 
• "Trump retoma, y reduce aún más, su estimación absurdamente baja del aumento del nivel del mar": Durante la campaña electoral de este verano, el expresidente Donald Trump ha puesto en duda sistemáticamente el cambio climático al afirmar falsamente que el nivel de los océanos aumentará solo “un octavo de pulgada en los próximos 400 años” [0,31 centímetros en 400 años]. Anteriormente, había utilizado la misma medida para un período de 250 años. Lo cierto es que el ritmo actual de aumento del nivel del mar ya es de poco más de un octavo de pulgada por año.