Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney pressured Donald Trump on Wednesday to release his tax returns publicly and said there was “good reason to believe” that there’s a “bombshell” in Trump’s taxes.
Romney was effectively pulling the same stunt as Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) did to him during his 2012 campaign for the White House.
“Frankly, I think we have good reason to believe that there’s a bombshell in Donald Trump’s taxes,” Romney said on Fox News. “Either he’s not as 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.”
Romney’s comments were an eerie echo to the charge Reid led against him in 2012 in which he alleged Romney’s tax filings were incorrect, disingenuous and that he didn’t pay taxes for a decade. The claims were debunked when Romney released his tax returns. Romney said it was because of his own issues with taxes that he called for specifically Trump, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) to release their own taxes dating back a two years.
Romney said he wanted to see the candidates’ taxes before he endorsed one of them for the presidency. But he only had a scathing criticism for Trump during his interview on Fox.
“The reason that I think that 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,” Romney said. “Of course they’re working on those. They won’t be ready for months. We’re talking about taxes already filed, back taxes.”
Here’s how Trump responded to the criticism:
Mitt Romney,who totally blew an election that should have been won and whose tax returns made him look like a fool, is now playing tough guy
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 24, 2016
When Mitt Romney asked me for my endorsement last time around, he was so awkward and goofy that we all should have known he could not win!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 24, 2016
