In an acknowledgement that his campaign mishandled the issue and that it cost him in South Carolina, Mitt Romney said this morning that he would release his tax returns on Tuesday.
“I was planning on releasing them in April when they’ve traditionally been released by other candidates in the past,” Romney told Fox News Sunday’s Chris Wallace. “But you know what? Given all the attention that’s been focused on tax returns. Given the distraction that I think they became in these last couple of weeks…I will release my tax returns for 2010, which is the last returns that were completed. I’ll do that on Tuesday of this week. I’ll also release at the same time an estimate for 2011 tax returns.”
He added, “We just made a mistake in holding off as long as we did. It was just a distraction. We just want to get back to the real issues of the campaign.”
He also dismissed the idea that his tax returns, which will show him tithing millions of dollars to the Mormon church, would hurt him among some voters.
“If people want to discriminate against someone based on their commitment to tithe, I’d be very surprised,” Romney said. “This is a country that believes in the bible. The bible speaks of providing tithes and offerings. I made a commitment to my church a long, long, time ago that I would give ten percent of my income to the church. And I followed through on that commitment. And hopefully as people look at the various individuals running for president, they’d be pleased with someone who made a promise, a promise to God, and kept that promise.”
