Mitch McConnell: Donald Trump should release his tax returns
Business Insider
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell joined the growing chorus of voices calling for Donald Trump to release his tax returns.
In an interview promoting his newly released memoir, "The Long Game," McConnell pointed out that for decades every major presidential candidate has released his or her tax records, a tradition intended to shed light on whether a candidate attempts to take advantage of the tax structure.
"For the last 30 or 40 years, every candidate for president has released their tax returns, and I think Donald Trump should as well," McConnell told Business Insider on Tuesday.
Over the past several months, Trump has resisted calls to release his returns, citing supposed legal advice to wait until the IRS finishes an audit of his records.
The majority leader previously suggested that he was puzzled by Trump's decision not to release his tax returns, but didn't explicitly call for the real-estate mogul to do so.
While McConnell asserted that Trump should release his records, he stopped short of supporting a bill backed by Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden that would require all presidential nominees to publicly disclose their tax records.
Many prominent Senate Republicans have echoed their party's leader in calling on Trump to disclose his tax records.
Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, a top-ranking Republican in Senate leadership, told CNN earlier this month that it would be a "good idea" for Trump to release his tax returns.
Other prominent Republican figures have also frowned on the presumptive Republican presidential nominee's refusal to release his tax records.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has repeatedly suggested that Trump's hesitancy could stem from a potential "bombshell" in the returns.
"It is disqualifying for a modern-day presidential nominee to refuse to release tax returns to the voters, especially one who has not been subject to public scrutiny in either military or public service," Romney wrote in a recent Facebook post.