ABC News(TOLEDO, Ohio) — Hillary Clinton on Monday slammed Donald Trump over a recent report from The New York Times that he could have avoided paying any federal income tax for nearly two decades.
“While millions of American families, including mine and yours, were working hard, paying our fair share, it seems he was contributing nothing to our nation,” Clinton said during a speech on the economy in Toledo, Ohio. “Imagine that. Not fair. Nothing for Pell grants to help kids go to college. Nothing for veterans. Nothing for our military.”
The Times on Saturday reported that Trump appeared to report a massive loss of roughly $916 million for 1995, based on what appeared to be a page from three returns, for New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
That amount, the report said, “would have been large enough to wipe out more than $50 million a year in taxable income over 18 years” and raises the question whether Trump paid any federal taxes in that time. The Times based its assertion on the net operating loss rule, which allows losses to affect income taxes three years beforehand and 15 years afterward.
The Trump campaign has not questioned the veracity of the documents obtained by The New York Times and has spun the report as an indication of his business savvy.
Trump has refused to release his tax returns, despite a pledge to do so. Most recently, he said he would do so if Clinton released thousands of her deleted emails.
In a statement on Oct. 1, the Trump campaign said that the 1995 documents were “illegally obtained” and that “Mr. Trump has paid hundreds of millions of dollars in property taxes, sales and excise taxes, real estate taxes, city taxes, state taxes, employee taxes and federal taxes, along with very substantial charitable contributions.”
Clinton said Trump “represents the same rigged system he claims he will change” and accused him of “taking from America with both hands and leaving the rest of us with the bill.”
“It’s always Trump first and everyone else last,” she added.
During an appearance on ABC’s This Week on Sunday, Rudy Giuliani, a Trump supporter and a former New York City mayor, called Trump a “genius” for how he was able to take advantage of tax laws, saying “he would have been a fool not to.” Giuliani emphasized that what Trump did was “perfectly legal.”
Trump tweeted on Sunday, “I know our complex tax laws better than anyone who has ever run for president and am the only one who can fix them.”
Clinton on Monday responded to that too. “Here’s my question — what kind of genius loses a billion dollars in a single year?” she asked. “This is Trump to a T.”
Despite harsh criticism from his opponent, Trump has not released his tax returns, citing a “routine audit.” Court cases and other litigation procedures, however, have revealed three years of his tax returns — all of which have also shown the Republican nominee paying nothing in federal income tax.
When Clinton brought this up during the debate last week, Trump did not deny it.
“That makes me smart,” Trump quipped.
The Clinton camp has jumped on this remark, even including it in a new television ad released Monday morning — titled “Arrogant” — about the Times report.
“If he thinks that makes him smart,” a voice-over in the ad says, “what does he think of you?”
Clinton is campaigning in Toledo and Akron Monday. It is her first visit to the Buckeye State — where Trump is showing a slight edge in polls — since Labor Day.
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