During Thursday’s Republican debate cacophony of childish insults and whining, Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) both attempted to attack Donald Trump for refusing to release his tax forms to the public after failed Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney alleged that there was a “bombshell” hidden in Trump’s taxes. Trump’s defense was that he couldn’t, because he was currently being audited by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). In fact, Trump announced that he has been audited every year for over a decade, a curious statement that raised eyebrows across the nation.
Trump, attempting to play into conservative America’s suspicions of bias in the IRS that took root after the Tea Party cried foul for being “unfairly” targeted for investigation by the IRS (they weren’t), said that the IRS was investigating him because he is “such a good Christian” (he isn’t). Such an allegation is a shameless attempt to pander to the crowd of religious extremists that make up the Republican base and is utter nonsense – as the IRS Chief John Koskinen himself noted in an interview with C-SPAN’s Newsmakers: “We don’t care who you are. Who you voted for, what party you belong to, whether you go to church, or don’t go to church. It would never be the case where you were audited because of your religious persuasion.” Clearly, unlike Trump, Konskinen and his agents understand what the Constitution says and respects freedom of religion in America.
Konskinen also pointed out that despite all of Trump’s stalling, there is nothing preventing him from releasing his own tax forms. He also hinted that there is something awry in Trump’s tax forms given the unusual frequency of audits:”Usually when there’s an audit, and it’s cleared up, if there are no other issues, it’s a number of years, two or three at least, before you hear from us again, unless something in your next return pops up.” Which would imply that Mr. Trump has not been honest with the government about how much money he makes (shocker). If Trump can’t even keep his own finances in order, one shudders to think at what he would do to the budget of this country.
Watch it here: