Fact Check: Second night of RNC riddled with dishonesty as Melania Trump appeals for 'total honesty'

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/25/politics/rnc-night-two-fact-check/index.html 

 First Lady Melania Trump concluded the second night of the Republican National Convention with a speech in which she said, "Total honesty is what we as citizens deserve from our president."

We certainly haven't received total honesty from President Donald Trump. And we certainly didn't get it on Tuesday night. The convention programming was littered with false or misleading claims, including some from the President's son Eric Trump, as well as a number of other claims that were missing important context.

Here's a look at some of the notable claims from Tuesday night and the facts behind them.

Peace in the Middle East

Eric Trump suggested that his father had achieved peace in the Middle East and brought never-ending wars to an end.

"Moving the embassy to Jerusalem; peace in the Middle East. Never-ending wars were finally ended. Promises made and promises for the first time were kept," he said.

Facts First: This is misleading and lacks context. President Trump did move Israel's US Embassy to Jerusalem. As for peace and ending "never-ending wars," it's unclear exactly which conflicts Eric Trump was referencing, but that's at best debatable and in some cases wrong.

In Afghanistan, US troops have been drawn down despite delays in the intra-Afghan peace talks and the Taliban's failure to distance themselves from al Qaeda.

US intelligence assessed there was an effort by a Russian military intelligence unit to pay the Taliban to kill US soldiers -- an effort that was downplayed by Trump. The US still has more than 5,000 troops in Iraq, although CENTCOM Commander Gen. Kenneth McKenzie said two weeks ago that number would likely decrease in coming months.