Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) discussed his opponent Donald Trump not releasing his taxes during an audit and suggested he is “hiding” something including “business dealings with the mob, with the Mafia.”
Partial transcript as follows:
STEPHANOPOULOS: You’ve made a big issue of Donald Trump’s taxes, now released summaries of your own returns.If he releases those some kind of summaries, will that be enough?
And — and what do you think of his — his statement that he believes he might be targeted by the IRS because he’s a Christian.
CRUZ: Well, I — I think his statement, nobody who heard it had any reaction other than laughter. Listen, I’ve released now nine years of taxes. Donald Trump has not released any of his tax information. He needs to release his tax information. And — and the fact that he’s refusing to do so really suggests, as Mitt Romney pointed out, that there may be a bombshell in there, that there’s something he’s hiding. Now — now, it could be an awful lot of media…
STEPHANOPOULOS: What do you think it is?
CRUZ: — outlets have reported — well, a lot of media outlets have reported that he doesn’t make nearly as much money as he says he does. You know, who knows, maybe — maybe the — the fact is that Mitt Romney is richer than Donald Trump. We don’t know. But — but he’s clearly hiding something. On the other hand, it could be donations to liberal groups like Planned Parenthood. At every debate, it seems, he praises Planned Parenthood. Maybe he’s written them a bunch of checks. Or — or, you know, maybe there are other issues. You know — you know, for example, there have been multiple media reports about Donald’s business dealings with the mob, with the Mafia. Now maybe his tax returns show that those business dealings are a lot more extensive than has been reported…
STEPHANOPOULOS: Business dealings with the Mafia?
CRUZ: We don’t know — indeed. ABC has reported that. You guys have reported that he’s — he’s done deals with S&A Concrete, which was owned by two of the big crime families in New York, and that he’s had involvement in Atlantic City. Maybe that’s what his tax returns show. We don’t know, but the important point is, George, in the general election, Hillary Clinton is going to shine a light on all of this. And Republican primary voters deserve to know. And the media is going to amplify the Democrats’ attacks a thousand fold. The Republican primary voters deserve to know if there’s a scandal, if there is, at Mitt Romney put it, a bombshell in Donald Trump’s taxes, we deserve to know, the voters deserve to know and to vet the candidates.
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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