Every other modern president has voluntarily released tax returns.
A spokeswoman for President Donald Trumps’ 2020 campaign claimed Monday that Congress members should not be able to access his tax returns because they have no legitimate reason to demand them. Her reasoning: the request does not include tax returns for other U.S. presidents.
“Ironically, the only person whose tax returns they’ve asked for — the only president — is Trump. So it’s a sham reasoning,” Trump’s 2020 campaign press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told Fox News, referring to congressional requests for Trump’s tax documents, as part of its probe into the multiple ongoing investigations into the president’s company, campaign, and inaugural committee.
Any examination of how effectively Trump’s Internal Revenue Service is doing its job would focus on Trump’s returns out of necessity. But the other reason Neal did not need to request the tax returns for other previous modern presidents is simple: they all released their tax returns voluntarily.
View the complete April 8 article by Josh Israel on the ThinkProgress website here.