Donald Trump Bungles Hillary Clinton’s Tax Returns Attack
Maybe, says Clinton, Trump won’t release his tax returns because he’s not as rich as he says he is. ‘I have a tremendous income,’ he sputters.
Brian Snyder / Reuters
Donald Trump continued to stonewall on releasing his tax returns on Monday night, even when asked directly about it on a national stage by presidential debate moderator Lester Holt.
He then gave different conditions for when he would finally publicize his tax returns, leaving confusion about when or if he would finally do so. Every major presidential candidate after Richard Nixon has released his or her tax returns before Election Day.
But Trump continues to use the excuse that he is under an IRS audit in some years to so far avoid releasing any of his returns.
“You’re perfectly free to release your taxes during an audit,” Holt responded.
Trump continued to obfuscate by saying that he would happily release his tax returns after the audit was complete, but added, “look, I’ve been under audit for almost 15 years.”
The Republican presidential nominee also said that he would release them as soon as Hillary Clinton “releases her 33,000 emails that have been deleted. As soon as she releases them, I will release,” Trump said.
Clinton fired back that she thought Trump did not want to release his tax returns because it would embarrass him in some way.
“There is no prohibition on releasing it when you’re under audit. So you’ve got to ask yourself, why won’t he release his tax returns?” Clinton responded. “And I think there may be a couple of reasons. First, maybe he’s not as rich as he says he is. Second, maybe he’s not as charitable as he claims to be… or maybe he doesn’t want the American people, all of you watching tonight, to know that he’s paid nothing in federal taxes.”
Trump responded by boasting about his income, which his taxes would shed considerable light on.
“I could give you a list of banks, if that could help you, I would give you a list of banks, these are very fine institutions, very fine banks… I have a great company, I have a tremendous income. And the reason I say that is not in a braggadocios way, but because it’s about time this country had somebody running in it that has an idea about money.”