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White House: Dems won’t see Trump tax returns ‘ever’

Monday, 08 April 2019 9:29 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 08 April 2019 10:08 AM ]

White House’s acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney (File photo)

The White House’s acting chief of staff says Donald Trump can keep withholding his tax returns despite pressure by Democrats on the president to release them as has his every predecessor.

"No, never," Mick Mulvaney told the "Fox News Sunday" program after being asked whether congressional Democrats would live to see the statistics.

He also dismissed the campaign as “a political stunt,” alleging, "They just want attention on the issue because they don’t want to talk to us about policy."

Last week, the House of Representatives’ Democrats formally requested that the Internal Revenue Service reveal six years of Trump's personal and business tax returns.

"Nor should they [see the returns]," Mulvaney added, claiming that the president was not legally bound to produce them.

“That’s an issue that was already litigated during the election. Voters knew the president could have given his tax returns, they knew that he didn’t, and they elected him anyway," he said.

The House’s Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal contested this, saying it was both legal and necessary for the president to reveal the data.

Under the federal tax code, the Treasury secretary "shall furnish" tax returns upon request from the chairmen of Congress’s tax committee, namely Neal, as long as the documents are viewed in a closed session.

‘The least transparent president’

Dan Kildee, a Democrat and a tax committee member, told ABC, "This is a legitimate authority that the Congress has [to demand the returns]. This president, by the way, is the least transparent president we've had in half a century."

Former presidential candidate Sen. Mitt Romney, once a Trump opponent, however, rushed to his defense, saying the Democrats will be failing to force him to a corner.

“I think the Democrats are just playing along his handbook, which is going after his tax returns through a legislative action – it’s moronic. That’s not going to happen,” Romney told NBC News' “Meet the Press” “So, he’s going to win this victory…He wins them time after time,” the senator added.

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