Mitt Romney went on Fox News today and accused Donald Trump of trying to hide something by refusing to release his taxes.
In the interview, host Neil Cavuto asked Romney about his abstention from supporting any candidate so far. “What are you waiting for?” Cavuto asked. It all but teed up Romney's excuse to attack Trump.
Romney, in his explanation, cited examining tax returns as one of his major requirements before making up his mind. So this was clearly on his mind to bring up. And while Romney said he wanted to see all the candidates’ tax returns, Trump’s was the one he focused on:
ROMNEY: I’d also like to see their back taxes. I’d like to see where they filed their taxes in the last several years. I’m not talking about their taxes this year, I’m talking about the taxes that have already been filed with the IRS. And Donald Trump and Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz have not shown us their back taxes.
Romney said “just the last two years” would be sufficient to get “a real sense” as to “whether these people are on the up and up and whether they’ve been telling us things about themselves that are true or not.” Then he let on that the one most likely not on the up and up would be Trump.
ROMNEY: I think, frankly, I think we have good reason to believe that there’s a bombshell in Donald Trump’s taxes.
…I think there’s something there. Either he’s not anywhere near as wealthy as he says he is or he hasn’t been paying the kind of taxes we would expect him to pay or perhaps he hasn’t been giving money to the vets or to the disabled like he’s been telling us he’s been doing.
And the reason that I think there’s a bombshell in there is because every time he’s asked about his taxes, he dodges and delays and says, “Well, we’re working on it." Hey, we’re not talking about the taxes that are coming due this year. Of course, they’re working on those. They won’t be ready for months. We’re talking about taxes already filed, back taxes. And my back taxes, when I ran in 2012, my back taxes I put out in January of 2012. We’re now in late February and we still haven’t seen either Donald Trump’s or Marco Rubio’s or Ted Cruz’s taxes. And, frankly, the voters have a right to see those tax returns before we decide who the nominee ought to be.
…He likes to tell people how well he’s done, why isn’t he willing to let us look at the tax returns?
…This was an issue in my campaign, that’s why I’m so sensitive to it.
Wow, just wow.
Watch this bombshell below, from the February 24 Your World.
There seems to be a nihilistic streak among the people who support Trump: he’s done and said so many completely off-the-wall things that would have discredited anybody else. And yet, there they are, cheering every word that openly violates American values. The language of an a-moral, egotistical bully.
I’d be curious to know whether or not Trump is paying his creditors as his campaign proceeds. Wouldn’t surprise me one bit if he were to put all the bills aside and unpaid in order to deal with them later. Is it possible for someone to declare bankruptcy on a failed political campaign? That would make the fifth body of creditors left with a fist full of house flies.
Anyway, Shep Smith mentioned yesterday that Trump’s credit rating is not a healthy one in New York where the banks won’t finance anything that has his name on it. That little bit of news was not contested by the person from the WSJ (the director, if I remember correctly) Shep was talking to.
Off topic: After watching a couple of “debates”, several interviews and bits and pieces here and there, I remain in awe at the poverty of Trump’s language. “I LOVE (whatever)”; “(whatever) are great people”, "when I’m President, we’re GONNA (whatever). And he never but never provides any details. Brings up memories of a great film called “Idiocracy”.
But not too soon!!!
Let the orange toupeed windbag run against Hillary before you let on that Trump has no money. That was Lawrence O’Donnell’s angle on the blowhard a couple of years back when he accurately predicted to the day when Trump would announce that he was NOT running for President.
In republican bizarro world NOT having money is a Huuuuge sin compared to cheating on taxes. In fact, in bizarro world cheating on taxes is right up there with winning the Medal of Honour.
Too bad, repubs: you created this monster from the evil triumvirate of the teabaggers, the Kochsucker Brothers who funded them, and the rightwing’s designated press arm (Fox News) . . . now OWN him.
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Frankly, I don’t think this will work. The GOP spent much of 2012 dismissing discussion of Romney’s tax returns, so it’s quite odd to see them suddenly championing the discussion now. And from what I can see, the GOP voters really don’t care about their candidates’ taxes.
If anything, this shows the GOP really starting to get frantic now. They know better than we do how much damage Trump can do to them this fall. I just don’t know that this approach will be all that fruitful for them. The saner approach in the long run would be to avoid creating figureheads like Trump in the future. And that might be accomplished by not having Fox News fanning the flames of these guys as hard as they can.
