Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday accused Donald Trump of “faking” his net worth by refusing to release his tax returns.
“If elected, Donald Trump would be the scammer in chief,” Reid said from the Senate floor. “Trump is faking his net worth because he doesn’t want us to know that he’s not a good businessman.”
{mosads}Reid’s comments come amid a war of words with the Republican presidential nominee. Reid last week criticized Trump for his weight, and Trump fired back by alluding to injuries Reid suffered in a 2015 exercising accident.
Reid on Tuesday said Trump is using his charity, the Donald J. Trump Foundation, as a “personal ATM machine” and spending the money on himself, calling him a “silver-spoon-touting fraud.”
“It’s against the law. It’s illegal, but Trump doesn’t care what the law is,” he said. “Trump can’t be trusted with his own charity, and are we supposed to believe he can manage the nation’s treasury?”
Reid pointed to a Washington Post story from July, which found that Trump used money from the foundation to pay for a $12,000 auction bid for a Denver Broncos helmet and jersey of then-quarterback Tim Tebow.
He added that with congressional Republicans already investigating Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server from her time as secretary of State — Reid has repeatedly called the probes “political hit jobs” — they should also dig into Trump.
Trump has said he won’t release his tax returns until the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) finishes its audit, though the IRS has said its audit does not prevent Trump from releasing the documents.
“How can Sen. [Mitch] McConnell [R-Ky.] and Speaker [Paul] Ryan [R-Wis.] continue to endorse this man?” Reid asked. “Hold Trump accountable for scamming charities, the IRS and the American people.”
Reid and other Democrats have repeatedly tried to link Republicans to Trump in hopes that he’ll drag down congressional candidates. Republicans are defending 24 Senate seats. Democrats need to pick up five — or four if they also retain the White House — to take back the Senate majority.
Reid in 2012 blasted then-GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney for not releasing his tax returns. He said from the Senate floor that the “word is out” that Romney hasn’t paid his taxes for 10 years.
Romney eventually released his previous year’s tax returns in September 2012.
Though his claim was debunked, Reid has refused to apologize, though he told Fusion last year, “Of course he paid taxes. … What he didn’t do is let us see his tax returns.”
— Updated at 10:56 a.m.