Rachel Maddow said that President Donald Trump’s leaked tax returns she received “might have come from the president himself.”
During the host’s appearance on “The View” Wednesday, “The Rachel Maddow Show” anchor said her first concern when she got the call about from a reporter who had received the president’s 2005 tax return was to make sure it wasn’t a “forgery.” (RELATED: Rachel Maddow Says MSNBC Has Trump Tax Returns)
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“My first thought was don’t get pranked,” Maddow told the ladies. “Could this be a forgery? Could this be some sort of..you know make sure this stuff is real, because obviously there is such appetite to learn about his tax returns.”
“He is the only president in 40 years who we don’t have his financial information,” she added. “We gave a tentative yes, we will break it if we can prove that it was real. Then we spent 36 hours trying to get the White House to verify it was real and then they finally did and we went to air.”
View host Sarah Haines questioned Maddow if she thought Trump could have leaked the tax returns.
“It totally could have come from Trump,” Maddow responded. “Which is such a bizarre human drama at the center of this. As far as I’m concerned, the only thing that matters is, is that document real?”
“That’s the story,” she continued. “Because what we need to know is whether the president is conflicted? Whether he’s making policy decisions. Whether he is making personnel decisions that aren’t just for the good of the country that might be benefiting him. That’s why we need to see that stuff.”
“Well we know he gave them to you, because otherwise there would be more pages with real information on them,” Behar interjected.
“We honestly have no idea where it came from,” Maddow said. “It very well might have come from the president himself.”