Tim Kaine Was Right As Fact Checkers Rule Trump Broke His Promise to Release Tax Returns

Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:17 pm

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Mike Pence is busted again as yet another lie from last night’s debate gets debunked.

During Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate, Democratic Senator Tim Kaine charged that Donald Trump had broken his promise to release his tax returns. Trump’s vice presidential candidate Republican Mike Pence denied that Trump had broken his promise, saying directly, “He hasn’t broken his promise.”
PolitiFact rules Pence’s statement as false; Donald Trump did break his promise. They write in their ruling:

Trump said he would ‘absolutely’ release his tax returns in January 2016 and that it’ll happen ‘probably over the next few months’ in February without the stipulation of an IRS audit. He also made the promise in 2011, 2014 and 2015 without conditions.”

They note, “There’s still 33 days left before Election Day, so Trump still has time to honor this pledge. But, as of Oct. 4, 2016, when Pence made his claim, Trump has yet to show the public the money.”

Their final verdict, “We rate Pence’s claim False.”

Days ago, the New York Times released a leaked tax return that suggested not only was Donald Trump a big loser (almost $1 billion in debt) but he also might not have paid income taxes for 18 years.

So Tim Kaine pressed Pence about Donald Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns, saying, “Donald Trump started this campaign in 2014, and he said, ‘If I run for president, I will absolutely release my taxes.’ He’s broken his first — ”

“He hasn’t broken his promise,” Pence said, denying reality. “Look, Donald Trump has filed over 100 pages of financial disclosure, which is what the law requires. The American people can review that. And he’s going, Senator, he’s going to release his tax returns when the audit is over.”

PolitiFact notes that Kaine countered “accurately”, “Richard Nixon released tax returns when he was under audit.”

Donald Trump won’t even do what Nixon Richard would in terms of transparency and that’s certainly something for the nation to ponder.

For all of the misguided praise for Pence’s stylistic debate performance, it was a performance riddled with lies and deceit. Mike Pence could not defend the man he’s running with, and so he chose to make up a fake Donald Trump.

Pence has been called out for his lies and embarrassed with the easily obtained video tape already. Pence’s performance full of lies only further brands the Republican ticket as the ticket of liars, but it’s also damaging his political future and further harming the Republican brand. Amid all of the other lies, it’s important to note that PolitiFact rated his Trump promise about his tax return claim false.

Donald Trump did promise to release his tax returns and he has not. He has no excuse for this, except that he is hiding something from the voters.

Sarah Jones

Listen to Sarah on the PoliticusUSA Pod on The Daily newsletter podcast here.

Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.

Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.

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