Fresh off a strong performance in the first presidential debate, Hillary Clinton on Tuesday knocked Donald Trump for bragging about not paying taxes and financially benefiting from the housing crisis.
Speaking to an audience at Wake Technical Community College in Raleigh, North Carolina, the former secretary of state repeated her debate-night claim that Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns may be because he had “paid nothing in federal taxes,” as was true on the few years of his returns that he made public. Trump replied on stage, “That makes me smart.”
“Now, if not paying taxes makes him smart, what does that make all the rest of us?” Clinton asked the crowd.
Clinton said that she and her husband Bill “didn’t come from billionaire families” but have been financially successful in their public lives.
“We believe with the blessings we’ve been giving, we should do our part,” she said to cheers from the audience.
Clinton then went after Trump for boasting to the debate audience at Hofstra University about his past comments calling the housing market bubble a “great opportunity” for his real estate empire. Trump said of those remarks, “That’s called business.”
“What kind of person believes that?” Clinton asked. “What kind of person would want to root for 9 million families losing their homes? One who should never be president is the answer to that question.”
