Huckabee also argued it’s “an invasion of privacy” for presidential candidates to release their tax returns, writing, “The qualifications for the Presidency are clear-cut, and there are specific financial disclosure forms you must file”.
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Trump also hit Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, calling her a “hypocrite”. “I fight very hard to pay as little tax as possible, and I’ve said that for the last two years … this country wastes our money”. “I have to laugh”, Trump replied. Supporters argued that Sanders supports policy that would require him to pay more taxes, suggesting he’s willing to change the law to pay more. Given that he says his tax returns since 2009 are still under audit, it is highly unlikely Trump will release anything before the November 2016 election if he sticks to that reasoning. The interview, on Good Morning America, was Trump’s latest refusal to immediately release his tax returns or discuss them in detail.
In challenging Trump on taxes, Clinton turned to a well-worn strategy that President Barack Obama used against Romney in 2012, pressuring him to release his personal taxes.
“It is disqualifying for a modern-day presidential nominee to refuse to release tax returns to the voters”, Romney said in a Facebook post this week.
Donald Trump has said that he’s totally willing to release his “big”, “very beautiful” tax returns.
“I really don’t, and I’ll tell you why”, he said.
Donald Trump maintains he’ll release his tax returns eventually – but until then? “We’ve got eight years on our website right now”, she said. (That excuse later fell apart when the State Department began releasing thousands of pages of her emails).
But during a Wednesday radio appearance, Trump softened his tone considerably, saying the ban “hasn’t been called for yet” and is “just a suggestion.”…
Clinton pointed out that she and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, had put out more than three decades of tax records. “Tax returns provide the public with its sole confirmation of the veracity of a candidate’s representations regarding charities, priorities, wealth, tax conformance, and conflicts of interest”. The litigation ran on for five years, and during that time we had to petition the court to compel Trump to hand over unredacted versions of the tax returns – which he ultimately did.
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Perhaps what the presumptive Republican presidential nominee really means is that he has nothing to gain politically by releasing his returns, but the public could learn quite a bit.
