Republican candidate Ted Cruz said Donald Trump is “hiding” his tax returns from primary voters, and argued the GOP front-runner should quickly release the documents to prevent a general election scandal should he become the nominee.
“If there’s a problem in his taxes, the voters have a right to know,” the Texas senator told CBS’ John Dickerson in a released segment of “Face the Nation” taped for Sunday’s broadcast.
“Come September, October, the general election, folks in the media are going to make a heyday about any problems in his taxes,” Cruz said.
During Thursday’s Republican debate Trump said the reason why he hasn’t released his taxes yet is because he is being audited by the Internal Revenue Service. Earlier in the week, 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney publicly questioned why Trump has not released his tax forms and warned there may be a “bombshell” that Trump is hiding.
“I will absolutely give my return but I’m being audited now for two or three years so I can’t do it until the audit is finished obviously,” Trump said.
In response, the IRS released a statement disputing Trump’s claim, explaining that nothing prevents individuals from sharing their own tax information.
“Look that makes it even more important for him to release his taxes so the voters can see if there is — you know Mitt Romney suggested there could be a ‘bombshell’ there,” Cruz said.
“I don’t know if there is or not,” Cruz said. “But Donald is hiding them from the voters and I think he owes candor to the voters.”
