Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney continues to refuse to release his tax returns, despite continued pounding from his Republican presidential opponents and from Democrats.
Romney has faced the question several times in recent weeks and will not release the documents. Reporters and those in attendance at events have asked the former Massachusetts governor why he won’t make the documents public. He hasn’t offered a reason why he’s keeping the documents private.
Now, Romney’s GOP rivals are slamming him for not releasing the tax returns. Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman said Romney should release them because “transparency” and “trust” are major issues in this year’s presidential campaign.
Rick Tyler, a former spokesman for Newt Gingrich and currently a senior adviser to pro-Gingrich Super PAC Winning Our Future, told The Daily Caller it appears Romney has got something to hide.
“I think he should release them,” Tyler told TheDC. “He should have nothing to hide, but apparently does.” During an interview on Breitbart.TV Sunday night, Tyler had said Romney gave a “bad name to capitalism.”
Romney faced heated criticism throughout Monday as the Wall Street Journal dropped a devastating analysis of his time at Bain Capital.
Mark Maremont of the Wall Street Journal reported that 22 percent of the companies Bain Capital invested in “either filed for bankruptcy reorganization or closed their doors by the end of the eighth year after Bain first invested, sometimes with substantial job losses,”
Maremont reported that Bain “produced stellar returns for its investors — yet the bulk of these came from just a small number of its investments… Ten deals produced more than 70% of the dollar gains. Some of those companies, too, later ran into trouble. Of the 10 businesses on which Bain investors scored their biggest gains, four later landed in bankruptcy court.”
Romney’s campaign has repeatedly refused requests for comment from The Daily Caller and other news organizations about whether he’ll release his tax returns and why he hasn’t yet done so.
Former Clinton White House adviser Lanny Davis authored an op-ed in TheDC last week suggesting that Romney would put himself in grave political danger by not releasing his tax returns.
“Romney’s refusal to release his tax returns… will bring into critical mass Romney’s biggest candidate vulnerability: the idea that he lacks candor and authenticity,” Davis wrote, predicting a “severe political hemorrhage” for the Republican front-runner.