Appearing on CNN this Sunday, political analyst Van Jones told Trump surrogate Rachel Campos-Duffy that the GOP nominee was “part of the corruption” if he paid no federal income taxes for the last 18 years.
Addressing the New York Times report alleging that Donald Trump had not paid taxes for nearly two decades, host Jake Tapper asked Campos-Duffy if the revelation should cast doubt on Trump’s credibility.
Ignoring the question entirely, Campos-Duffy changed the subject to accuse President Barack Obama of being “the epitome of cronyism.”
“That’s a good pivot,” Jones said. “It is, in fact, true if Donald Trump lost a billion dollars — think about this — lost a billion dollars, he could wind up as a winner legally in his taxes for a generation.”
“Is that because he’s a genius?” Jones continued. “It’s because billionaires have armies of lobbyists to write the rules. Here’s the deal: If you’re obeying horrible rules that you helped to write, that doesn’t make you a genius. It makes you a part of the corruption.”
Center for American Progress CEO Neera Tanden chimed in, pointing out that it’s clear Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns shows he’s hiding something.
“He’s been hiding the information because he knows that saying you’re a great businessman when you lose a billion dollars on casinos is really hard to do, but somehow he managed to do it,” she said. “These are his personal income taxes and it shows that he’s a hypocrite on his most basic argument of being a champion of the working people.”
“Because he’s basically saying, ‘I’m going to run these cons, you have to pay your taxes, but I’m not going to.’”
Watch the video below, via CNN:
https://youtu.be/6hVKr5tLHm8
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