- Remember that scene in Armageddon where
in exchange for landing on a meteorite
and planting a nuclear bomb on it,
all the guys want in exchange is to never pay taxes again?
God that was a good script.
The fight over Donald Trump's tax returns
is a battle between an unstoppable force,
like a meteorite, and an immovable object.
The unstoppable force in this case
is the House Democratic Majority,
which, since they came into power
in the 2018 midterm elections,
have made getting a look at Trump's
past tax returns a major priority.
The immovable object is Trump himself.
Ever since he became a candidate for president,
way back in the summer of 2015,
he has refused to release even a single year of tax returns.
- I'm releasing when we're finished with the audit.
Hopefully it's gonna be before the election.
- He's got a 12,000 page tax return that's under audit.
There's nothing there.
- You know the only one that cares about
my tax returns are the reporters, okay?
- [Reporter] You don't think the American
public is concerned about it?
- No I don't think so, I won.
- For the first two years of Trump's presidency,
nothing really moved on the tax returns front.
Sure, every April 15th Democrats made a big stink
about the fact that Trump is the first president
in the modern era, since Richard Nixon effectively,
not to release any tax returns.
But there was no way they could attempt
to force Trump's hand since Republicans
controlled the House and the Senate
and had a total of zero interest in spending time
on getting a look at President Trump's taxes.
That all changed in a big way on November 6th, 2018,
when democrats picked up 40 republican held house seats,
and, in so doing, retook the majority
they had lost eight years prior.
Now, why did it change?
Well, because of a provision of tax
law from way back in 1924.
I'm sure you know about this, but known as code 6103,
the little known piece of the law
allows the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee
to request any individual's tax return.
And according to the code, the Treasury Secretary quote,
"shall furnish such committee
"with any return or return information
"specified in such request," end quote.
A lot of suches.
Which is exactly what Ways and Means Committee
Chairman Richard Neal of Massachusetts is
in the process right now of doing.
Quote, "I think the President has an opportunity here
"to defuse this and just release the forms
"as every other candidate for President has done,"
Neal said shortly after the 2018 election.
"Even if the request is made, I don't expect that afternoon
"we're going to see those tax forms.
"So I think we'll do what we have to do,
"and then see where the road takes us
"and the path that we travel."
That's deep.
It's pretty clear that Trump isn't going to just,
you know, turn over his tax returns.
He's spent three years making
a variety of excuses for why he can't,
ranging from that he's under audit,
to that his taxes are just too complex
for the average person to understand,
to the idea that regular people, ah, they just don't care.
Why has Trump fought so hard against
what had become standard disclosure practice
for presidential candidates and presidents in the past?
I don't know, but here's what I do know:
early on his campaign, Trump decided that
whatever was in his returns was way worse
than the negative press he might endure
for not releasing his returns.
This is a hill Trump seems willing to die on.
Now it's no surprise, given all that water under the bridge,
that the Trump White House doesn't exactly see the things
the way Neal and House Democrats do
when it comes to Trump's returns.
The Treasury Department has, at least publicly,
been very tight lipped about the whole thing, quote,
"Secretary Mnuchin will review any request
with the Treasury General Counsel for legality,"
a spokeswoman told Politico in February.
But behind the scenes, there's an active effort
at both the Treasury Department
and among Republicans in the House and Senate
to mount both a legal and a political defense
against the Democratic request
to get a look at Trump's taxes.
And the Republican argument goes
a little something like this:
Democrats' desire to view Trump's taxes
have nothing to do with the public interest
and absolutely everything to do
with political considerations.
Quote, "where does it end?
What about the tax returns of the speaker?
Political donors?
There is no end in sight."
that's Republican Pennsylvania Congressman Mike Kelly,
who's a member of the Ways and Means Committee.
He added this: quote, "Every single
"American has the right to privacy."
Republicans believe that if Trump's
tax returns are turned over to Neal,
they would inevitably be leaked
to the public in very short order,
and that such a leak would be a violation of,
among other things, Trump's right to privacy.
So, where do we go from here?
Well, Neal must first formally make the request.
And to be honest, he's kinda taking his time with it,
making sure that there are no obvious legal loopholes
that either the Treasury Department
or Trump's attorneys can cite to allow
the President to wiggle out of disclosure.
Quote, "We are doing our due diligence,"
Neal told CNN's Lauren Fox in early March.
Quote, "I don't have a timeline," end quote.
That clears things up.
When Neal does formally make his request,
it's very likely that Mnunchin
will either ignore it completely
or refuse to turn the records over.
At which point, Neal will subpoena the returns.
And the Trump administration will,
I assume, fight that subpoena.
So fast forward, fast forward, fast forward,
long story short, the case will almost certainly
find its way to the Supreme Court,
since neither side seems willing
to bend an inch on this issue.
Now if this fight lands in the court,
it could well happen in the midst
of a very contentious 2020 campaign
between Trump and the eventual
democratic presidential nominee.
If that comes to pass, you can be sure
it would be a major issue in that very campaign.
All of which would put the Supreme Court
in a place it really hates being:
at the epicenter of a white hot political debate.
And that is The Point.
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