Texas Gov. Rick Perry was added to the list of prominent Republicans calling on Mitt Romney to release more of his tax returns Tuesday, after initial media reports from a Perry press conference.
Team Perry says those initial reports, which came from the AP and other outlets, aren’t exactly right. Perry is in favor of more transparency from all presidential candidates, a spokesperson told TPM, but he thinks the final decision on tax returns is up to Romney.
The first AP headline from the Perry press conference read “Perry calls on Mitt Romney to release tax returns.” The story reported “is calling on fellow Republican and former rival Mitt Romney to release his tax returns.”
“The governor didn’t say that. He just didn’t,” Catherine Frazier, a Perry spokesperson told TPM after the AP story went up. “He said he thinks anyone running for higher office should make an effort to be as transparent as possible.”
At the press conference, Perry said he values transparency from all candidates and once again specifically called on President Obama to release his college transcripts, a stance he shares with Donald Trump.
He brought up tax returns as part of the conversation about transparency.
“I think anyone running for office, if they get asked within reason, to give people backgrounds about what they have been doing, including tax returns,” Perry said, adding, “I’m all about transparency.”
Here’s video clipped by the Texas Tribune:
After the Perry camp complaints, the AP story changed. The new headline is “Perry calls for ‘transparency’ for all candidates” and it includes this:
Perry didn’t specifically call on Romney to release more tax returns. But Perry said that anyone running for office should give people what he called “backgrounds,” including tax returns, if asked and if the requests are within reason.
Asked by TPM if Perry specifically thinks Romney should release more tax returns, Frazier demurred.
“What the Romney campaign releases is going to be a decision that is up to them,” she said.
