Mormon vs. Mormon: Reid attacks Romney

Updated: 8/01/2012 10:23 pm | Published: 8/01/2012 3:12 pm

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - The most powerful Mormon in Washington is now attacking the Mormon who wants to be president.

According to the Huffington Post website...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is suggesting that Mitt Romney paid no taxes for a decade.

What's more, Reid also feels that Romney is worth a lot more than previously reported.

Finally, the Nevada Senator believes Romney's father would be “embarrassed” by his son's behavior.

Reid tells the Huffington Post that a Bain Capital investor told him that Romney,

"...didn't pay any taxes for 10 years."

Now, when Reid made a similar remark a few weeks ago, it didn’t attract much attention.

But this time, Reid's comments quickly lit up the internet.

And that's not all the senator from Nevada is saying.

In that same Huffington Post interview, Reid claims his fellow Mormon is worth more than the
250 million dollars that's been reported.

Finally, Reid also indicates in the Huffington Post piece, that he believes Romney's father would be "embarrassed" by his son not releasing more tax returns.

His father, Michigan Governor George Romney, released a dozen tax returns when he ran for president
in 1968.

However, Mitt Romney's campaign has long denied the charge that he avoided paying taxes.

But according to new polling out Wednesday, a majority of voters think more returns should be released.

It should be noted, though, that according to the Huffington Post, Senator Reid admits he can't be “certain” that Romney didn't pay any taxes for 10 years.

***UPDATE***

Wednesday night, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that Senator Reid was not backing away from his comments about Romney.

In fact, as the paper's headline put it, Reid was doubling down.

In an afternoon conference call with Nevada reporters, the Review Journal quotes Reid as saying,

"I am not basing this on some figment of my imagination...I have had a number of people tell

me that."

FOLLOW CHRIS VANOCUR ON TWITTER: @cvan4

Story Comments

Print Story

12 Comment(s)

Comments: Show | Hide

Here are the most recent story comments.View All

The views expressed here do not necessarily represent those of ABC4

Proudmommy321 - 9/21/2012 10:51 PM

0 Votes

Report User

Romney has released his tax return for 2011 an the person in charge of his blind trust from 1990 to present has written letter certifying that Romneys have paid average of income tax. And guess what Mr. Reid is still accusing Romney of hiding from taxes. Because didn't take full amount of deduction on the charitable donations. I think Reid needs to get over this. Romney is an honest man and he won all into the traps set up by democrats. Romney is going to win. he will not go against what he stands for. Reid can't deal with the fact that Romney has earned his money and has invested well and is where all Americans want to be. Free of debt and have enough money to live off of.

drmarconi - 8/5/2012 2:28 PM

0 Votes

Report User

This video shows Romney saying he doesn't know what rates he's paid in the past. Romney needs to, at the very least, submit his personal and business long form Federal and State tax returns for several years since he claims he pays on "varied years" all legal. If not, his books were probably cooked in the past. What other possibility is left for this refusal? He says he paid taxes but not which taxes; it could be sales tax! A minimum requirement for being the President of the United States should be that the person at least know his own income, assets, and everything on his tax returns. Is he going to have to shoot his lawyer in the face to keep him quiet, or what?

JoelCannon - 8/3/2012 7:19 AM

0 Votes

Report User

Romney has demonstrated that he is not obsessed with money by donating the majority of his time for the last twenty years to community service. He could have easily become a multi billionaire if he had stayed at Bain, instead he decide he had enough wealth, and dedicated his time and resources to the Olympics, Govenorship ans running for the US Senate and Presidency, without collecting a salary and spending his own money. True, he is frugal and has invested wisely, but isn't that someone we need to fix our nations problems? It appears that political partisanship blinds people on each extreme.

Enough Already - 8/3/2012 3:04 AM

1 Vote

Report User

Oh, well, if Reid heard the rumor from several people, it must be true. Whatever taxes Romney did or didn't pay, there is no question that the tax system favors the rich, and, in a cruel and bizarre twist, taxes dividends (money they did nothing to earn, except that they were rich enough to own stocks, etc.) at a lower rate than I pay, working for a living. Of course the rich do all they can to minimize their taxes - so do I. They just have more favorable laws to help them. I realize that there aren't enough rich people to solve our financial mess - If we took everything every rich person had, it would hardly make a dent, so until we get the hutzpa to reign in our spending, the only real option is to tax the middle class out of existence. But it would be a least a little more fair, even it were only a symbolic gesture, to tax the guy worth hundreds of millions at the same rate that I pay, earning only tens of thousands a year.

88ew88 - 8/2/2012 12:08 PM

0 Votes

Report User

I echo the sentiment that this should ease anyone concerned that the LDS Church influences its members serving in public office, when in fact they maintain a strict political neutrality. Reid's comments should not be viewed on the religious spectrum at all, because all this is is a political game. The Democrats aren't digging up enough dirt on Romney and they want to find some somewhere. That's all. Romney's smart and isn't playing their game their way. www.conservativemormonmom.blogspot.com

maxd31516 - 8/2/2012 11:37 AM

1 Vote

Report User

Harry Reid's role in opposing Mitt Romney should put to rest all speculation and fear that the leaders of the Mormon Church might try to direct any elected official in the duties of their office. Both Reid and Romney are active members of the Church in good standing, and they could not be further apart in their political positions. Though Reid might shudder at the thought, his opposition to Romney is actually a support to Mitt, in disguise. Thanks, Harry!!!

emstisme - 8/2/2012 9:06 AM

0 Votes

Report User

Holy sh**t Jeff, how's the air up there on Saturn? I'm not going to defend Obama. I don't much care for him. But seriously, a felon for possession? Where the hell did you come up with that logic? Are you suggesting he was caught with pounds of cocaine with the intent to distribute near a school? Possession of a drug does not immediately constitute a felony, and most likely the amounts he ever had on his person for his own consumption would have never been treated that way. You're out of your mind and up in the night. Thousands of years to pay off trillions??? If you think in thousands of years that trillions will be a lot of money, you're making too many assumptions and not using your brain enough. Tell you what, in a few thousand years you can prove me wrong by showing us all that humans will still be running this joint, still have a monetary system as we have now, and show us all how a trillion dollars is still as much of a crapload of money. People like you that spin wild tales just to make a point really should find better things to do. Go back to your AA... I mean NRA, meetings where you belong.

nrajeff - 8/1/2012 10:22 PM

0 Votes

Report User

Romney should say that he will release more of his tax records after Harry Reid and Obama release THEIRS, and after Obama releases his school records. How much taxes did Obama's friends pay on the millions he stole from us taxpayers and handed to Solyndra bigwigs? Think you'll ever see that money again? How much tax does Obama pay on the freebies we all provide for him--the free food, housing, jet fuel and pilots and staff so he can play golf and Gucci-wearing Michelle can party in Hawaii, while the damage Barry and Harry have done to the USA gets worse? How many thousands of years will it take your descendants to pay back the trillions of dollars that Obama has squandered on his "stimulus package to nowhere" ? It's pretty obvious that Obama sees his disapproval rating, and is desperate. His people threw out the "Romney is a felon" rumor the other day. Funny, because Obama has admitted that he is definitely a felon--reefer and cocaine were still illegal to possess and use when he was a member of the Choom Gang.

LossOfGravity - 8/1/2012 10:09 PM

1 Vote

Report User

Ebenezer Romney the Miser was wearing a Scrooge straitjacket long before Republicans really knew him. It should come as no surprise that as an obsessive personality fixated on Money, he's refusing to release his tax returns. And it isn't a contradiction that he seeks relief by binging when he gives to the Mormon church but then returns to his habitual hoarding of money. Money or wealth is not the problem, but rather his obsessiveness which can make him appear socially awkward. In fact, money is what he uses to cover up the issue-- Yes, I'm a little odd, but I'm rich -- a friend of the Nascar owners not the drivers. But this obsession (like drinking or gambling) seems to have gotten the upper hand. Otherwise, why wouldn't he have taken care of his tax returns prior to this, especially since he's been running for president practically forever? Because he just can't - the obsession - and hence the straitjacket of his own making which leaves everyone wondering about his lack of foresight. What about those tax returns? A man with a disease, with a maniacal obsession about Money would desperately try to avoid paying his taxes. In fact, like the gambler who wins, it's exhilarating when he can find the loophole or tax haven. Charles Dickens based his character Ebenezer Scrooge on a real person. This man is not well, and he cannot be President.

abc422 - 8/1/2012 9:36 PM

1 Vote

Report User

I think the real reason the issue of Romney's refusal to release his tax returns won't go away is because Romney himself has said that he will pay for his proposed massive tax cuts on the wealthiest Americans by eliminating tax loopholes. But which ones will he eliminate? HE REFUSES TO SAY. Which raises the obvious question: will he close the loopholes that HE uses to hide millions in foreign accounts and offshore tax shelters? Or does he only intend to eliminate deductions and credits that OTHER people use., e.g., the ones that middle-class families rely on? This is why Romney's secrecy is so maddening: We have no idea if his tax plan is a shamefully self-serving one that keeps the loopholes used by millionaires like him while cutting the ones used by middle-class families, since he refuses to release his returns (even his 2010 one is incomplete) and since he refuses to say anything SPECIFIC about his tax plan. This seems to be his strategy: Just don't say anything, don't admit to anything, don't divulge any specifics about anything--and hope that people just dislike the President enough to vote for anyone else.

Click Here to Add Your Comments View All

More Political News

	Chaffetz talks about "scandals" brewing in Washington
Chaffetz talks about "scandals" brewing in Washington \| Video

more political news >>