Clinton On Trump’s Tax Return Refusal: What Is He Trying To Hide?

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton speaks during the presidential debate with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., Monday, Sept. 26, 2016. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
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Hillary Clinton pounced on Donald Trump at Monday’s presidential debate for saying he would only release his tax returns if she released missing emails from her private server, and speculated that his refusal to release them because he is not as rich or as charitable as he claims.

“You have got to ask yourself why won’t he release his tax returns? And I think there may be a couple of reasons. First, maybe he is not as rich as he says he is. Second, maybe he is not as charitable as he claims to be,” Clinton said. “Third, we don’t know all of his business dealings, but we have been told through investigative reporting that he owes about $650 million to Wall Street and foreign banks.”

She added that the tax returns might also reveal that he didn’t pay federal income taxes.

“I think he is probably not all that enthusiastic about having the rest of our country see what the real reasons are because it must be something really important, even terrible that he is trying to hide,” Clinton said.

Trump earlier in the night said he can’t release his tax returns because he is under IRS audit. (The IRS has said an audit wouldn’t prohibit someone from releasing his or her returns). Trump referred voters to his financial disclosure statement instead.

“And the financial disclosure statement, they don’t give you the tax rate. They don’t give you the details that tax returns would,” Clinton said. “And it just seems to me, that this is something that the American people deserve to see and I have no reason to believe that he is ever going to release his tax returns because there is something he is hiding.”

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