Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., reinforcing the Democratic line of attack on Mitt Romney’s unreleased tax returns, on Friday defended Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for suggesting that the presumptive GOP nominee might not have paid any taxes over 10 years.
Reid has said an unnamed, "extremely credible" source told him that Romney didn't pay taxes for a decade. The burden of proof was on Romney, Reid said. And Schumer said the issue is Romney's taxes, not Reid.
“Every day Mitt Romney has to talk about tax returns is a bad day for him and a good day for the Democrats,” Schumer said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. “They’re trying to focus this on Harry Reid. There's an 800-pound elephant in the room. It's called unreleased taxes.”
Repeating the call by Democrats and many Republicans, Schumer added that Romney should just release his tax returns.
“Guess what? Few things we know about Mitt Romney's taxes—Cayman Islands, Swiss bank accounts—raised more questions than they answer,” Schumer said. “He should rip off the Band-Aid now. He should have done it two years ago. No one could understand why.”
At a campaign event in Denver on Thursday, Romney called the attack “baloney,” attacking Reid’s lack of evidence.
“It’s time for Harry to put up or shut up,” Romney said. “Harry’s gonna have to describe who he spoke with, because of course that’s totally and completely wrong. It’s untrue, dishonest, and inaccurate. It’s wrong. So I’m looking forward to having Harry reveal his sources, and we’ll probably find out it’s the White House.”
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