Why hasn’t Donald Trump released tax returns? Because he’s not as wealthy as he claims to be, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid asserted.
Reid, D-Nev., engaged in a lengthy discussion about Trump on the Senate floor Tuesday, calling him the "scammer-in-chief" if elected president and a "fraud."
"He’s not worth nearly as much as he claims to be," Reid said. "That’s a secret he doesn’t want anyone to know. He wants everyone to think he’s this big, rich, rich man. We know that Trump lies about his money."
Trump claims that he’s worth $10 billion. He’s the only candidate remaining on the Democratic and Republican presidential ticket who hasn’t released his tax returns.
Trump says he can’t release them because he’s currently being audited. But the Internal Revenue Service says there’s nothing preventing him from making his returns public.
Reid’s rhetorical attack was his latest against a Republican presidential nominee on taxes. In 2012, he launched broadsides against Mitt Romney from the Senate floor, claiming that he knew that the former Massachusetts governor hadn’t paid taxes for a decade.
Romney eventually released returns which showed that he had paid taxes. Reid, in a CNN interview last week, was unapologetic about his 2012 charge.
"I have an obligation as the Democratic leader to point out things that are wrong," he told CNN’s Manu Raju. "And I have an obligation to go after people that I think are wrong."
William Douglas: 202-383-6026, @williamgdouglas