I agree with what's being said that he will use it against Clinton to release her big business speeches. If the public wants information from the candidates they deem important in making their decision, it's arbitrary whether that info is a speech or a tax return, and she looks ridiculous decrying his refusal to do so while refusing to release speeches that may actually be as, if not more, relevant to her declared positions.
Two separate issues. Candidates release tax returns. The people expect candidates to release tax returns. Everything else is...everything else.
Not separate issues, both are private documents that they are not required to release. Candidates choose to release them for the goodwill the act can provide, but Trump certainly isn't running a campaign on trying to accrue goodwill. The news media may cover it because they need stories but I've never seen tax returns actually be a topic of discussion that an average person instigated or demanded.
If you're not interested in candidates' tax returns, that's fine but the American public has gotten used to seeing those returns for the last fifty years and there is plenty of analysis and commentary done about them. Gerald Ford is the only one who has not released those documents since Richard Nixon established the practice, though others had before him, notably FDR. While election law does not require release of the documents, the court of public opinion surely does, even if you don't care. We live in an era where a lack of documents will equate to something to hide, goodwill has nothing to do with it - people want facts!
Trump is going to do things his way though....I doubt tax returns will do much in terms of swinging voters one way or the other I agree with JetBlue that he will withhold it in order to make Hillary look bad with not releasing her speeches.....which should be way more important if you think about it
24 presidential candidates have provided their tax records. 7 of them were running in this election. When exactly did the American public become "used to" getting tax records from a candidate? And exactly how many of those Americans do you think actually bothered to look at those records?
My favorite part about this thread is Raletard trying to bash the obvious scumbag Donald Trump, while championing the other obvious scumbag Hillary. It's fucking comedy.
I presume, using one of your infantile sobriquets, you are speaking of me? I am trying to bash no one, I am simply pointing out that while Trump has no legal obligation to produce is tax returns, sixty years of presidential elections have shared the experience of candidates essentially declaring they had nothing to hide and releasing their tax returns for examination by the people. Trump, to date, has not followed this pattern while constantly changing statements on whether, or not, he ever will. This will, of course, prompt the questions of "what is he hiding?" Please cite any quotation of mine that would indicate I am "championing" anything whatsoever having to do with Hillary Clinton. You seem to be drawing conclusions out of thin air again, to no discerning reader's surprise. It's fucking comedy!
Exactly. It's a story the media uses, but nobody, in general not the absolute nobody, rushes out to review the candidates taxes. Obviously it would be relevant to the story Donald Trump is telling of himself, but so are Hillary's hundred thousand dollar business speeches when she wants to purport herself as a lady for the common folk first. But neither are obligated to release these relevant documents to their narratives.
And this why the speeches and returns aren't difference -- their relevance to the candidates and whether they have something to hide that contradicts their stories.
If it has ever been customary for a candidate to release transcripts of every speech they ever made then I would concede there is no difference between refusing to do so and refusing to release tax returns. Certainly no one is being told what they should consider or disregard going into the polls.
Trump has gotten where he's gotten by refusing to do anything normal during the process. He's bucked every convention of modern American politics and refused to accept the standard approaches to getting elected. So far it has worked and I wouldn't expect him to change going into the general election. Unless there's a law somewhere that I am unaware of that says he must release his tax returns he probably isn't going to do that. Now, carry this pattern of action over to what President Trump is likely to do and you begin to understand why many in the GOP will not back him in the general election. Contrary to popular belief, especially on this board, there are good reasons the President doesn't go for the launch codes every time something goes wrong.
Interesting which post you chose to respond to. But not surprising. Lmao, first it was fifty years, then it was sixty, are we going for seventy next? You're getting a lot of mileage out of FDR's tax records.
Trump is a piece of garbage, but he's not going to be president. It was predetermined years ago that everyone's favorite bull dyke was going to win the office. The rest is window dressing to make the American people feel like part of the process.
