There might be a “bombshell” revelation to be discovered in Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump’s tax returns, 2012 party nominee Mitt Romney said Wednesday.
He also called on the entire GOP field to release their tax returns.
“I think there’s something there," Romney said of Trump's returns, "Either he’s not 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,” Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto on “Your World.”
Trump responded later Wednesday on Twitter, slamming Romney for losing a winnable election, and calling him "awkward" and "goofy" when the governor asked for the real estate magnate's endorsement.
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
“The reason I think 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… We’re talking about taxes that already filed,” Romney, a multimillionaire businessman, said.
“This was an issue in my [2012] campaign. That’s why I’m so sensitive to it,” Romney said.
Romney was pressured by President Obama’s reelection campaign in 2012 to release five additional years of his personal tax returns after the Republican’s campaign said he hadn’t paid more than 13 percent in taxes in the previous decade.
“We’re going to select our nominee. We really ought to see from all three of these fellows what their taxes look like to see if there’s an issue there,” he added, also pointing to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, “I think in Donald Trump’s case, it’s likely to be a bombshell.”
“Perhaps he hasn’t been giving money to the veterans or to the disabled like he’s been telling us he’s been doing. I think that’s the reason there’s a bombshell [in his returns],” he said.
Cavuto pressed Romney as to whether the governor was indeed questioning the amount of Trump’s declared charitable donations.
“Well, if his taxes show that he hasn’t made any contributions to the disabled veterans… that would be a big issue, and I’m not saying that’s the case,” Romney said, “I’m just saying there are things that could be issues.”
Trump, who skipped Fox News’ January GOP debate in Des Moines, Iowa, to hold a nearby rally he described as a benefit for veterans groups, has repeatedly voiced his commitment to such groups in his campaign speeches. The New York billionaire tweeted on January 29 that the veterans’ event raised $6 million.
Romney told Cavuto that voters “have a right to see [candidates’] tax returns” before deciding on a nominee. “We’re now in late February and we still haven’t seen Donald Trump’s or Marco Rubio’s or Ted Cruz’ taxes.”
“If in fact [their] taxes have some real problems, let’s get them out there and see them,” he said.
“When people decide they don’t want to give you their taxes, it’s usually because there’s something they don’t want you to see,” Romney said.
Trump submitted a financial disclosure form when he announced his presidential bid in June 2015. At the time, he declared his net worth to be about $10 billion.
Sounds like Romney just wants to go on a fishing expedition, and in so doing, get himself some publicity. He is tired of being a nobody, that pissed away his race.
Si vis pacem, para bellum
Those who beat their swords into plowshares will plow for those who don't
Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.
There are no Carthaginian terrorists.
President Obama is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people. --Clint Eastwood
A friend will help you move ,But a good friend will help you move a body..
As much as it pains me to say it, Romney may have a point.
The IRS tax code is the establishment fall back tool. Its thousands of pages of regulations and laws (some of which contradict each other) ensure that no one - NO ONE - is not guilty of violating something.
All of us who file taxes are guilty of violating some law or regulation. That is by design. For the most part, however, we are left alone.
But it's there to use. It goes without saying that someone like Trump is guilty of something.
So the question becomes - why has nothing come out so far?
It's not IF something will come out - but when?
"Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD . . . "
Sounds like Romney just wants to go on a fishing expedition, and in so doing, get himself some publicity. He is tired of being a nobody, that pissed away his race.
I remember Reid publicly disclosing some of Romney's confidential tax information on the Senate floor. It seems weird that Roney would use this kind of attack against Trump when he wouldn't against anyone in the opposing party.
Some think Romney sees himself as the anti-Trump and is simply biding his time until his party drafts him.
Personally, I think he's political poison.
There are three kinds of people in the world: those that can add and those that can't
So the question becomes - why has nothing come out so far?
I suspect it's because Trump does not make any business decision without thoroughly understanding the tax implications and has hired the best tax preparers in NYC to do his taxes every year.
And then, he takes their advice.
Personally, as an American taxpayer, I hope Trump pays every penny he legally owes and not a penny more.
There are three kinds of people in the world: those that can add and those that can't
" Some think Romney sees himself as the anti-Trump and is simply biding his time until his party drafts him.
Personally, I think he's political poison. "
I think you are right.
If Trump wins fair & square, and the GOPe pull their shit, and use Romney, or any other establishment co**sucker, the GOP will lose big time. I know people, quite a few, that have told me that if that happens, they do not care if hillary, or the devil himself is running, they WILL NOT VOTE FOR GOPe, they do not give a shit hearing about Supreme Court, yada, yada, yada. They have said they will vote 3rd Party, or they will spend their time at the range! Their attitude is f**k the GOPe.
Is the GOPe dumb enough to do that? Yes, their ignorance, and arrogance is what has made Trump so popular
Either the GOPe has to be totally wiped out, or the nation is gone!
Si vis pacem, para bellum
Those who beat their swords into plowshares will plow for those who don't
Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.
There are no Carthaginian terrorists.
President Obama is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people. --Clint Eastwood
A friend will help you move ,But a good friend will help you move a body..
If Trump wins fair & square, and the GOPe pull their shit, and use Romney, or any other establishment co**sucker, the GOP will lose big time.
I still can't see the RNC ever putting Trump on their ballot or the big donors to the RNC financing a Trump candidacy.
But if they do, it would not surprise me if they also conspire to somehow throw the election to the HoR by ensuring no candidate gets 270 (or whatever) Electoral College votes.
There are three kinds of people in the world: those that can add and those that can't
"Sounds like Romney just wants to go on a fishing expedition, an and in so doing, get himself some publicity. He is tired of being a nobody, th that pissed away his race."
Hey! Over here! Remember me? I'm Mitt Romney, the failed Presidential candidate. I'm still relevant.
Romney had a hell of a time dealing with weasel Harry Reid making up stuff about his taxes.
I'm sure the Dems have a briefcase full of dirt on Trump that his Repub opponents have inexplicably refused to explore . The Dems won't be so kind. I would suggest to Cruz to adopt Trumps 'punch him in the mouth' campaign style or he will be finished after Super Tuesday .
"If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools." Plato
Who would you then support? Kasich? Rubio, Carson, Trump?
Got me . Don't see where it would matter . I like Carson the best of this group .But I don't see him qualified for the job.
I've soured on Rubio Beyond immigration ,he has an almost perfect conservative record . But he has shown he's too willing to go along with the crowd .
Kasich is a competent Guv ,except for the Medicaid sell out . He was also a big part of the Gingrich revolution that temporarily brought some sanity to the budget. But I think he's too tempermental .
Trump has the leadership qualities needed for the job .But he takes too many positions I can't support and says way too many things on the campaign trail that would not fly coming from the mouth of the President . His art of the deal means that he has no true governing philosophy except to compromise . He flip flops worse than JFKerry ever did . If I don't like that in Rubio ,why would I like it in Trump? Also .mark my words . There is some nasty stuff about his business dealings that have not been explored yet .
And I would be nuts to support Evita or Bolshevik Bernie.
Quite a conundrum.
"If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools." Plato
“I think there’s something there," Romney said of Trump's returns, "Either he’s not 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,” Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto on “Your World.”
Or both.
After Trump claimed he had a net worth of 10 billion,I read an article (Forbes,I think) that said they had analyzed Trumps net worth and came up with a $4 billion figure,and that was allowing Trump his claim that his "trademark" (the Trump name) was worth $2 billion.
As for the rest,it is no secret he is a businessman that makes his money on the fringes,so you can rest assured he has the best lawyers money can buy. In other words,not really breaking any laws,but continuously dancing right up to the edge. For example,I have read the charges before about his collecting millions from veterans projects,but not forwarding the money to the veterans. This is probably what he is doing and will keep doing for as long as he can get away with doing it because he has probably used that money to pay off debts or to draw interest,and on the very last day he can turn it over to the veterans groups without breaking the law,he will do so. NOT illegal,but not ethical either,and clearly embarrassing to a presidential candidate.
ISLAM MEANS SUBMISSION!
Why is democracy held in such high esteem when it’s the enemy of the minority and makes all rights relative to the dictates of the majority? (Ron Paul,2012)
American Indians had open borders. Look at how well that worked out for them.
If Trump wins fair & square, and the GOPe pull their shit, and use Romney, or any other establishment co**sucker, the GOP will lose big time. I know people, quite a few, that have told me that if that happens, they do not care if hillary, or the devil himself is running, they WILL NOT VOTE FOR GOPe, they do not give a shit hearing about Supreme Court, yada, yada, yada. They have said they will vote 3rd Party, or they will spend their time at the range! Their attitude is f**k the GOPe.
I fully expect some sort of manufactured crisis,maybe/probably even popping up and giving Trump the excuse he needs to drop out late after destroying any chance whatsoever of an actual conservative winning,and run as a Third Party Candidate in order to harm the Republican candidate even more by pulling votes away from him.
P.T.Barnum,once again fleecing the rubes.
ISLAM MEANS SUBMISSION!
Why is democracy held in such high esteem when it’s the enemy of the minority and makes all rights relative to the dictates of the majority? (Ron Paul,2012)
American Indians had open borders. Look at how well that worked out for them.
I still can't see the RNC ever putting Trump on their ballot or the big donors to the RNC financing a Trump candidacy.
Trump,and his behind the scenes supporters have been counting on that since Day One of his campaign.
He does NOT want to be president because he can't afford to have his finances revealed because they would prove him to be a loser in his own eyes as well as a habitual liar,and because his ego will never allow him to put his money in a blind trust.
What he DOES want to do is be Perot,Part 2. A pretender that sucks away conservative votes so the Dim candidate (ANOTHER Clinton) wins and he gets a big payoff after the election ends.
ISLAM MEANS SUBMISSION!
Why is democracy held in such high esteem when it’s the enemy of the minority and makes all rights relative to the dictates of the majority? (Ron Paul,2012)
American Indians had open borders. Look at how well that worked out for them.
Hey! Over here! Remember me? I'm Mitt Romney, the failed Presidential candidate. I'm still relevant.
I think there is an element of that involved in the mix,also.
Still,SOMEBODY needed to say this,so why not him?
ISLAM MEANS SUBMISSION!
Why is democracy held in such high esteem when it’s the enemy of the minority and makes all rights relative to the dictates of the majority? (Ron Paul,2012)
American Indians had open borders. Look at how well that worked out for them.
I'm sure the Dems have a briefcase full of dirt on Trump that his Repub opponents have inexplicably refused to explore . The Dems won't be so kind. I would suggest to Cruz to adopt Trumps 'punch him in the mouth' campaign style or he will be finished after Super Tuesday .
I couldn't agree more. He needs to do this during the debates where he has Trump live and standing behind a podium where he can't have his team release a lawyer prepared non-response. He needs to have Trump standing up there with his orange face turning red as he spits and sputters and sounds like de Kingfish splain-in way some scam to Andy.
ISLAM MEANS SUBMISSION!
Why is democracy held in such high esteem when it’s the enemy of the minority and makes all rights relative to the dictates of the majority? (Ron Paul,2012)
American Indians had open borders. Look at how well that worked out for them.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her husband former President Bill Clinton made almost $28 million last year and paid about $10 million or 36% of that in federal taxes, according to tax returns her campaign released Friday.
The Clinton campaign made public eight years of returns — covering 2007 to 2014, essentially filling in the public record since she ran for president unsuccessfully eight years ago. As a result of the earlier campaign and her husband’s political career, the couple’s returns back to 1977 are now public.
The returns do show some financial tactics that could draw criticism. They reveal that Hillary Clinton used a limited liability company — ZFS Holdings, LLC — to receive her speech income and royalties from her books. Delaware state records show ZFS was created in February, 2013, just eight days after Clinton stepped down as secretary of state and began making paid speeches.
Bill Clinton’s use of a similar entity for his speech and business income drew press attention earlier this year because of concern about so-called “shell” or “pass-through” companies being used to shield income from taxation.
The Clintons gave just over $3 million to charity in 2014, about 11 percent of their overall income. Almost all of it was directed into a family foundation which doles out money to other charities and is separate from the better-known Clinton Foundation, a global charity they started.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign hopes that the charitable giving compares favorably with that of the top establishment candidate on the Republican side, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. In 2013, he and wife Columba gave roughly 1.5 percent to charity — $110, 616 out of total income of nearly $7.3 million. They took an extension on filing their taxes this year and did not do so by the April 15 deadline, Bush campaign officials said.
The Clintons’ returns also provide specific details on how much income they derived from various sources, going beyond previously disclosed information about their speech income.
The 2014 return shows Clinton pulled in almost $10.5 million in speaking fees and about $5.7 million in royalties, chiefly for her book “Hard Choices,” published that year. That’s atop a $3 million advance she scored from Simon & Schuster in 2013, the tax forms show
Bill Clinton made $2.1 million in the last calendar year from his consulting deal with GEMS Education and $4.3 million from Laureate Education, while bringing in $9.7 million in speech income, according to the most recent return.
On Friday, Hillary Clinton’s campaign also disclosed a breakdown of paid Clinton speeches in 2013, showing that Bill and Hillary got a collective $5.8 million for speeches to banks, investment firms, private equity funds, asset management companies, bank lobbies and the like. Bill Clinton brought in a total of $13.1 million in speech fees that year, while Hillary was paid about $9.7 million.
Hillary Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon boasted on Twitter that the disclosures about speeches and business dealings were more detailed than Bush’s. “Clinton returns break out all underlying sources of both her and her husband’s business income. Unlike fmr FL gov did with his LLC,” Fallon wrote.
In a statement accompanying the returns released Friday, Clinton seemed to try to play down the multi-million-dollar figures by stressing her humble roots and her intention to overhaul the tax code.
“We’ve come a long way from my days going door-to-door for the Children’s Defense Fund and earning $16,450 as a young law professor in Arkansas – and we owe it to the opportunities America provides,” Clinton said. “I want more Americans to have the chance to work hard and get ahead, just like we did. And reforming the tax code can help.”
Clinton’s statement also aggregated her taxes paid over the eight-year-period. The couple’s total federal tax bill since 2007 was $43,885,310 in addition to $13,625,777 in taxes paid at the state and local level.
Their total charitable donations since 2007 came to nearly $15 million, although that figure does not appear to include speaking fees they directed to the Clinton Foundation, which is operated as a charity. Clinton aides say those speeches were delivered on behalf of the foundation, so related payments are not considered income for the Clintons despite the fact that the fees pass through their speakers’ bureau and the charitable speeches are often indistinguishable from the paid ones.
Protesters rally for higher pay in front of a McDonald's, Wednesday, April 15, 2015, in New York. Airport workers, home care workers, Walmart workers and adjunct professors are among those set to join in the Fight for $15 protests across the country, in what organizers are calling the biggest ever mobilization of workers in the U.S. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
The foundation-funding speeches brought in at least $12 million and perhaps more than $24 million, according to a voluntary disclosure the foundation released in May after questions and press stories about the payments. The payments were not included in the financial disclosure Clinton filed in May as a presidential candidate or in earlier ones she filed as secretary of state. Since the payments were not income to the Clintons, they also cannot deduct them on their tax returns.
Presidential candidates are not required by law to make their tax returns public, but most major-party contenders have done so in recent decades. Candidates are required to file personal financial disclosures with the Federal Election Commission.which details most of their financial holdings, but does not provide exact figures for most income types.
The return appeared to show Bill Clinton was claiming use of 25 percent of the Chappaqua, N.Y., house for business purposes but a Clinton campaign spokesman said the claim actually applied to a quarter of a renovated barn on the property, not the residence.
The tax returns and details on the Clintons’ speech income were part of an avalanche of Clinton-related records made public Friday, a traditional day for political figures to release information they hope won’t garner huge press attention. Clinton’s campaign also released a report on her health Friday.
The documents came as political action committees, including super PACs supporting presidential candidates, filed spending reports with the Federal Election Commission. And, in accordance with a court-mandated schedule, the State Department released more than 1,000 emails from the private account Clinton used as secretary of state.
There's not a Dem politico out there with more than one term under their belt that doesn't have dirty skirts and Trump apparently has no qualms about exploiting that.
There are three kinds of people in the world: those that can add and those that can't
