Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) announced Tuesday that he would be releasing 10 years’ worth of tax returns before Tax Day, when 2019 tax filings are due, arrives next week.
In an interview with The New York Times, Sanders, a strong contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, suggested that his tax returns would show that he is a millionaire. During his last presidential bid in 2016 and throughout his career, Sanders has criticized other politicians, especially President Donald Trump, for accepting money from big corporations and the ultra-rich.
“I wrote a best-selling book,” Sanders told the Times. “If you write a best-selling book, you can be a millionaire, too.”
Sanders also noted to the paper that he was not a “billionaire” who had “investments in Saudi Arabia,” like he says Trump does.
Sander’s announcement comes months after he confirmed he was running in the 2020 presidential election, which drew attention to whether the senator would release his own tax returns. Sanders often calls on Trump to release his tax returns and fiercely criticized the president for not releasing them after he was elected.
“On the day in the very immediate future, certainly before April 15, we release ours, I hope that Donald Trump will do exactly the same,” Sanders said in the Times interview. “We are going to release 10 years of our tax returns, and we hope that on that day Donald Trump will do the same.”
Sanders’ campaign manager later confirmed with CNN that Sanders would be making his tax returns public “on or before” Monday.
The Vermont independent committed to releasing his tax returns during a CNN town hall in late February, one week after announcing his candidacy, though he didn’t provide a date.
However, concern over whether Sanders would release his tax returns grew last week as other 2020 Democratic contenders, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Amy Klobuchar (Minn.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), released theirs.
In an article about Sanders’ delayed release, Democratic lobbyist and strategist Steve Elmendorf told ABC News that Democrats value transparency.
“I don’t think it’s sustainable to be a Democratic candidate for president and not release your tax returns,” Elmendorf told ABC News, referring to Sanders. “Democrats believe in transparency, and they’ve made a big issue about Trump not being transparent.”
Sanders’ book “Our Revolution,” published one week after the 2016 presidential election, earned a spot on The New York Times bestseller list that same month. The senator released his most recent book, “Where We Go From Here: Two Years in the Resistance,” in November. It has not yet appeared on the Times bestseller list.
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