BY ADAM EDELMAN
October 2, 2016
Former New York City Mayor and Donald Trump surrogate Rudy Giuliani inexplicably touted the GOP nominee's reported avoidance of paying federal taxes for nearly two decades as a "genius" legal move that further proved the billionaire candidate's business acumen.
"He's a genius," Giuliani said on ABC's "This Week," one of many stops on a whirlwind spin tour Sunday morning.
"He would have been a fool not to take advantage" of current tax laws, he added. "This is a perfectly legal application of the tax code … and he would've been fool not to take advantage of it."
"The headline should have been, 'Donald Trump takes advantage of legal provisions in tax code,'" Giuliani said during another appearance on CNN's "State of the Union."
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie echoed the bizarre claim during his own appearance on "Fox News Sunday."
"There's no one who's shown more genius in their way to maneuver around the tax code," he said.
Trump's two top surrogates were responding to a bombshell New York Times report that revealed details from the mogul's 1995 tax returns.
Trump, the returns showed according to the newspaper, declared a loss of almost $1 billion — and may have skirted federal income taxes for 18 years.
The documents show that Trump declared a $916 million loss following the failures of his Atlantic City casinos and his short-lived Trump Shuttle airline. His deficit was so large that it appeared to let him legally avoid paying a penny of federal income taxes for up to 18 years.
Trump has refused to release his tax returns on the campaign trail, violating a four-decade tradition for presidential nominees.
No comments:
Post a Comment