Monday, September 28, 2020

Trump Asked About Taxes Report: "Fake ... Totally Fake ... Made Up, Fake ... Totally Fake ... Just Fake ... So Fake ... So Phony ... Bad Reporting ... A Hoax, A Complete Hoax ... Wrong ... So Bad ... So Bad ... Wrong ... I've Paid A Lot ... I Pay A Lot ... I've Paid A Lot ... A Total Fake ... Look At The Filings I Have ... They're Very Big, They're Very Powerful ... I Look Forward To Releasing Many Things. I'm Going To Release Many Things."
Also: IRS Commissioner Has Called Trump's "Under Audit" Excuse 100% Bullshit (No Such Rule Exists)

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Reporter: You said this numerous times, but do you really believe that Joe Biden will be on any type of performance enhancing drug ahead of the debates? Or are you just joking?

Donald Trump: No, I'm not joking. I mean, I'm willing to take a drug test. I think he should too because he’s had a very uneven … I watched him with some of the, you know, when he was debating Pocahontas and Harris who treated him so badly, but I watched him and he was out of it and then I watched him against Bernie Sanders and he was okay. I mean he wasn't great but he wasn't terrible. He was okay. A far cry from the way he … You know what I'm saying. If you look at some of those debates I said there's no way he could continue. He can't continue. Then all of the sudden he debated crazy Bernie Sanders and, you know what, the truth is he was okay. I said how did he go from there, with those horrible performances, to where he was okay? And I always joke, but it's true, he was no Winston Churchill in debating but he was fine. And people say he was on performance enhancing drugs. A lot of people have said that. A lot of people have written that. Take a look. Why don't you just check out the internet? You will see. Plenty of people say it and whether it is or not doesn't matter but I would love to take a test and he can take a test too.

Reporter: So we'll start with the debate. Obviously it is coming up. How are you preparing? Is somebody playing Joe Biden in the debate with you? Are you doing debate prep at all?

Donald Trump: I'm doing it and these two gentleman have been helping. . . . [E]ither one of them is about five times smarter than Sleepy Joe . . . You know, what I do is debate prep everyday. . . . 

Reporter: How many hours would you say you’ve spent on -

Donald Trump: A little time. I mean not a lot.

Reporter: More or less than 16?

Donald Trump: I'm running a country. I don't, you know, I don't have the luxury.

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Reporter: . . . and one of the ones that's going to likely, everybody is going to be talking about, is there a New York Times story that came out about an hour ago that says that when you came into The White House you were paying about $750 per year in federal income tax. They are not releasing, they're not publishing the tax terms. They're not showing that out there. They're saying, to protect their sources, in your tax returns, sir, does that sound right that you were paying a couple hundred dollars a year in income taxes?

[Note: Trumps claims he would love to release his taxes, but he cannot because he is under audit. In April 2019, IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig confirmed at a House Appropriations Subcommittee on that there is "no rule that would prohibit the release of a tax return because it's under audit". Trump has been using the "under audit" excuse for four years.]

Donald Trump: That's fake news. That's totally fake news. Made up, fake. We went through the same story. You could've asked me the same questions four years ago. I had to litigate this and talk about it. Totally fake news. No. Now actually I paid tax, and you'll see that, as soon as my tax returns … It's under audit. They've been under audit for a long time. The IRS does not treat me well. They treat me like the tea party, like they treated the tea party. They don't treat me well. They treat me very badly. You have people in the IRS that they treat me very, very badly but they're under audit and when they're not I'd be proud to show it. But that's just fake news. The New York Times tried it. Same thing. They want to create a little bit of story. They're doing anything they can. Not only that. That's the least of it. I mean the stories that I read are so fake, they're so phony. . . . I think somebody said they were going to do a negative story. They always do negative stories. I don't think in the last … I used to get good stories in The New York Times when I ran for office and I happened to be conservative, republican. I don't think we've had a good story. They've predicted my loss four years ago. They then apologized for their bad reporting. Then they predicted the FBI and all of these things. That's now proven to be a hoax, a complete hoax. They got Pulitzer Prizes along with The Washington Post. They should give all those Pulitzer Prizes back because everything was wrong. I mean it was so bad. Their reporting was so bad. They were wrong. It was exactly the opposite. Now there are people who should get Pulitzer Prizes. Solomon, Codder. I mean they're not in the business of Pulitzer Prizes but Sean Hannity got it right, Lou Dobbs got it right, Laura got it right. Many people … Tucker got it right. There are many people that got it right. I don't know what they get other than a great salary and great ratings. I mean I don't know what they get. . . . Jordan, go ahead.

Jordan: Yes, thank you. On The New York Times story though, you have to understand that Americans read that you may have paid only a few hundred dollars in federal income tax per year that seems very low for someone who is a billionaire. Can you give people an idea of how much you actually are paying?

Donald Trump: Yeah basically. Well, first of all, I've paid a lot and I pay a lot of state income taxes too. The New York state charges a lot and I've paid a lot of money in state. It will all be revealed. It's going to come out.

Jordan: When?

Donald Trump: But after the auditors. I'm being … They're doing their assessment, we've been negotiating for a long time, things get settled like in the IRS, but right now when you're under audit you don't do it. You don't do that. So you're under audit but the story is a total fake and all of this. You know we had the same exact questions, usually asked by the same people, and that took place four years ago. You remember, this was so well litigated. It's incredible. If you look at the filings I have, I think I have 108 pages of filings for all of these different companies and do very well, obviously, because the filings and nobody talks about that. You'll learn much more if you'll look at those filings and we have to file every single year. But you'll learn much more if you look at those filings. Those filings are very complete. They're very big, they're very powerful, they're very accurate and those are the filings that you'll learn much more and when it's done … But when you're under audit you just don't release them and, again, they treat me - 

Reporter: Mr. President, tell us what you paid in federal taxes.

Donald Trump: I'm talking to him. You should be more respectful of this gentleman. You're very rude to him. But I will tell you that I look forward to releasing that. I look forward to releasing many things. I'm going to release many things and people will be really shocked. But The New York Times has been doing fake story after fake story. I've never seen anything like it and people understand it and people … That's why the media has such a low approval rating because of what they've done. It's really a shame.

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