RUSH: Now, folks, I want to go back.

We touched on it yesterday, and I pretty much said all there is to say about Trump’s tax returns, but I want to go through this one more time because it’s a subject that’s largely misunderstood. A lot of things are misreported about taxes in general — who owes them, who pays them, who doesn’t, and why — and, as you know, the Democrats use this as a weapon.

Do you remember they said that Mitt Romney… Harry Reid calls a press conference. “A friend of mine just told me that Mitt Romney hasn’t paid taxes in 10 years.” And the media said to Harry Reid, “Well, what evidence do you have?” Harry Reid said, “You’re asking the wrong guy. Don’t ask me. You need to go ask Mitt Romney. Romney’s the guy that hadn’t paid his taxes in 10 years.”

The media said, “Oh, yeah. Good point.” So, out of nowhere, Reid accuses Romney of not paying taxes for 10 years, then the media starts asking Romney, and Romney, of course, says, “It’s absurd. I paid my taxes. What are you talking about?” But it survived the entire campaign, that Romney had not paid his taxes, or was alleged to have not paid his taxes.

All started by Harry Reid. “Romney’s a rich guy, not paying his taxes!” Class envy, class warfare, typical Democrat weapon. Now they’re doing the same thing with Trump, but this thing has blown up on them. The thing that you have to remember that you may have forgotten: If you go back to the debate between Trump and Hillary Clinton in October of 2016, Donald Trump admitted that he hadn’t paid any federal income tax for years.

The New York Times had the story on October 10, 2016: “Donald J. Trump explicitly acknowledged for the first time during Sunday’s debate that he used a $916 million loss that he reported on his 1995 income tax returns to avoid paying personal federal income taxes for years. Mr. Trump’s response — ‘Of course I do. Of course I do’ — was the fullest the wealthy developer had provided since the New York Times reported that he had declared the loss…

“Asked directly during the debate if he would say how many years he had avoided paying federal income taxes, Mr. Trump responded, ‘No.’ But at the same time, he [said] that he paid ‘hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes,’ calling it a ‘simple’ thing. ‘I pay tax, and I pay federal tax, too,’ he said.”

The bottom line here is that here comes the New York Times with this massive bomb of a story over the weekend Trump hadn’t paid taxes, and Trump admitted that he hadn’t. He acknowledged it in a debate with Hillary Clinton. So why are we talking about this again? It’s a Rip Van Winkle issue. What, did we all fall asleep for four years? This is all the left has, Trump’s taxes?

If that’s all they’ve got, they’ve got nothing — and they literally have nothing, folks. Everything they have — everything they have come up with — has been a big, fat zero. It’s been empty. From Trump colluding with the Russians to that perfect phone call with Ukraine, the impeachment. All of it has added up to nothing. But there are still more things about this that I just want to wrap up.

In the first place, Kevin Brady, who is the ranking Republican in the House on the Ways and Means Committee — which is the committee that writes all tax legislation — has called for an investigation of who the hell it was that leaked Trump’s tax returns to the New York Times. Folks, it’s real simple. The IRS is the only agency that can prosecute taxpayers for not paying taxes, and they have not prosecuted Trump once.

Now, there is an ongoing audit, and the audit is over a refund that Trump got for $72 million, and also the loss he claimed of $916 million. But this audit has been going on for years and years and years. It has yet to result in any criminal charges. The New York Times is trying to make it look like Trump all of a sudden has been found out, and it’s not the case.

Now, it is a felony for anybody at the IRS to leak tax details of any citizen — and somebody at the IRS did. I’m surprised it took ’em this long. I’m surprised it took this long for somebody at the IRS to leak. But what they’ve ended up leaking has led to nothing. There are three media conspiracy theories that Trump’s tax returns debunk.

“NYT Debunks Three Media Conspiracy Theories With Trump’s Tax Returns — Plus a dose of reality when it comes to real estate investing,” and IRS audit. “Trump has said for a while that he did not want to release his tax returns due to an audit by the IRS. Did he lie? Nope. The [New York Times] admitted that Trump is in ‘a decade-long audit battle with the Internal Revenue Service over the legitimacy of a $72.9 million tax refund that he claimed, and received, after declaring huge losses.'”

Then the New York Times said that Michael Cohen — the Stormy Daniels aspect of this. “The media and the left wanted [Trump’s] tax returns because they were certain it would have information about a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.” But no. From the New York Times article: “The data contains no new revelations about the $130,000 payment to Stephanie Clifford, the actress who performs as Stormy Daniels…”

Number three: “The tax returns did not have any new financial connections to Russia.” So the New York Times was convinced that if they could get hold of Trump’s tax returns, that they would have proof of massive criminality. What the New York Times apparently… I don’t know if they don’t have people old enough, smart enough, educated enough to know this.

If there was genuinely any criminality in Trump’s taxes, the IRS would years ago have pursued it. So they say that Trump’s out there claiming he’s a billionaire and that he told Forbes magazine he’s a billionaire, and he convinced them that he’s a billionaire, and Forbes magazine’s running the story — you know, the richest people in America and there’s Trump on the list of billionaires.

The Forbes magazine story does not count for a thing. The IRS can read those stories and they can see that Forbes magazine is claiming that Trump is a billionaire — and if they want, they can go look at Trump’s tax returns and they can say, “This guy’s not billionaire! He’s not even claiming it’s close.” But there’s nothing they can do about it because Forbes magazine is just a magazine. It carries no official weight with the IRS.

In other words, just because Forbes prints that Trump is a billionaire doesn’t make it so. And it doesn’t mean that the IRS can assume he’s a billionaire and is lying to them. They have to assume what’s on his tax returns is the truth. That’s what they examine. That’s what they audit. They cannot go get the Forbes magazine story and hold that up to Trump and say, “Well, what is this? They said that you lied to them. You say you’re a billionaire and you’re not.”

“That’s a news story. I have nothing to say about a news story. Yeah, I tried to convince them, but -” The IRS cannot assume that Trump is lying because Forbes or any other publication claims that Trump is worth X. It’s all there in his tax returns. And that’s the basis on which they have to proceed, which they are. There is a 10-year audit over a nearly 73 million-dollar refund. They have not concluded the audit, and they have not demanded the $73 million back yet. They have not disavowed it.

So there’s nothing to see here. There literally is nothing to see. And the New York Times and the media wanted Trump’s tax returns, don’t forget, because they were convinced that there would be evidence that Trump owed his wealth to Russia and Vladimir Putin. They were convinced, like they were convinced that he stole the election, like they were convinced that he deserved to be impeached over Ukraine, like they have been convinced of all this other criminality for which there is no evidence.

They were convinced that his tax returns would show that without Russians propping him up, he would be in the poorhouse, he would be worth nothing. And there’s not anything to do with Russia in Trump’s tax returns, not a thing. There’s nothing about a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels. None of what you have been told by the media for four years regarding Trump’s finances turns out to be true, either.

On top of this we have Trump admitting that he hasn’t paid any taxes, so that aspect of the New York Times story is worthless. And again, that story’s October 10th, 2016. Then the question really raises itself, does anybody care? In terms of voters. Is this really gonna matter? I don’t think so. I don’t think this matters. I think the people that are gonna vote for Donald Trump could not care less about this. And the people that are not gonna vote for Donald Trump are not gonna be changed or made any different by it.

It’s just another flailing attempt by the Drive-By Media to try to associate Trump with criminality, and they have failed big time. This is not 2016. This is 2020. Trump has been president for four years. All it’s about is whether you think he’s done a good job or not and whether you think he’s the guy to protect the American way of life, which is what this election is about. You think Donald Trump is the guy to essentially save the United States from this onslaught we are facing from the American left and the worldwide left.

If you think Trump is the guy, these tax returns are not gonna matter to you a whit. The only felony here is whoever leaked Trump’s tax returns. And we’ll probably never know that.

Look at this story. This story is from TheHour.com. “White Men Backing Trump Say They Can’t Be Swayed.” This is all about the boat parades, the car parades, the flags, the banners, screaming support for Trump. “White Men Backing Trump Say They Can’t Be Swayed.” As though somehow white men are a bunch of blockhead doofuses. You want to talk about insulting discrimination?

So nothing there on Trump’s taxes. There’s nothing to see. If there were, the IRS would have had the goods long ago. The fact that he’s under a 10-year audit would almost classify as harassment. I can’t imagine it. But he’s had to put up with it like he has a whole lot of other things.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Cranston, Rhode Island. This is Tom. You’re next, sir. Great to have you with us.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. Thanks for taking my call. Mega dittos and my prayers to you.

RUSH: Thank you, sir.

CALLER: (unintelligible) Christian values of this country. I have a quick question, and I would like you to make it clear. The New York Times came out with a Donald Trump tax story, and within moments there was an ad — a well-done ad — by the Biden campaign attacking all of that. Do you think they shook hands with each other? And which came first, the New York Times story or the Biden campaign? Can you explain that and make it simple for me?

RUSH: It sounds like you already have it figured out.

CALLER: I kind of do, but I think the way you explain things and tell the world…

RUSH: Oh, I see. I see. Because I’m so good at this.

CALLER: You are good at it.

RUSH: Because I’m so good at unraveling these intricate webs of deceit that are woven —

CALLER: Absolutely!

RUSH: — by the Democrats and their allies, that you think I could unpack this in a way to have it make sense, whereas you don’t think —

CALLER: Yeah, how did it happen so quick? How did it happen so quick?

RUSH: Okay. Well, before I answer it, tell me again, ’cause I don’t read the New York Times. I heard about the New York Times tax story, and I read things about it, but I still didn’t read it. What happened here that you need me to explain? And, by the way, I can still explain it. If it’s the New York Times, I can still explain it even though I haven’t seen it. Tell me what it is.

CALLER: Well, I heard the New York Times story, like everybody else, probably at the same period of time in the news day. Within hours, there’s an ad with Joe Biden attacking President Trump, and it seemed like a well-done ad that I would think, between editing and filming and putting it all together, had to take some time, more than 12 hours. So how can that possibly be?

RUSH: Well, was the ad not a print ad? It was a video ad?

CALLER: It was a video ad with… Well, it actually was prints, but like it had captions on it. How long does it take an ad to be produced?

RUSH: Those are television ads.

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: You know, I’m — I’m — I’m… (sigh) This is getting frustrating. I don’t watch anymore what you guys watch.

CALLER: It was on Fox.

RUSH: So I haven’t seen this. If it’s mainstream media, if it’s New York Times, I don’t pay attention to it. So I’ve gotta guess here.

CALLER: It was on Fox. (chuckles)

RUSH: Well, I still haven’t seen it.

CALLER: Okay.

RUSH: I still haven’t seen it. I don’t care about the New York Times! I literally couldn’t care less about the New York Times. I don’t care what they do. It makes no difference to me. If I lived in Washington and maybe New York, I would care. But I could not care less about the New York Times. From what you’re telling me, though, it sounds like there had to be some collusion between the Biden campaign and the New York Times. I wouldn’t be surprised by that at all.

CALLER: Yeah, the story came out simultaneously — like, almost within minutes of each other, the ad and the story. You know?

RUSH: And so what are we gonna do about it?

CALLER: I’m gonna vote for Trump.

RUSH: Exactly. Exactly. I don’t know. If what you’re saying is true, it had to be that the New York Times was coordinating with the Biden campaign, which would not surprise me at all. It’s the New York Times. They’re not journalists anymore. We’re not talking about journalism. We’re talking about Democrat Party activism. It makes perfect sense that they would be colluding with the Biden campaign.

CALLER: Absolutely.

RUSH: On this.

CALLER: Can I say one more thing?

RUSH: Sure.

CALLER: God bless you Donald Trump, and good luck tonight, and I know that you’ll be great.

RUSH: Well, he will. He will. No question. Thanks much. I appreciate the call.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: This is Sue in Cary, North Carolina. You’re next on the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. I remember back when Harry Reid and the Democrats went after Mitt Romney on his taxes. After it was over I saw Harry Reid on a show and he came out and said that he knew it was a lie.

RUSH: Right. He said, “We won, didn’t we?”

CALLER: Yeah, that’s what got me. He said, well, it worked, didn’t it?

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: So, you know, they’re just bringing up this tax thing on Trump, it’s the same thing, they know it’s not gonna get ’em anything but they just want to get everybody stirred up.

RUSH: Well, no, I think they are hoping — look. They’ve got Trump on the brain. They are frustrated like you and I can’t believe that they haven’t been able to get rid of him yet. They’re beside themselves. They’ve thrown every weapon they have, and not only have they not gotten rid of him, when you get right down to brass tacks, they haven’t put a dent. He’s still happy, he’s still running the show, he’s still president, he’s still doing everything he can to implement an agenda that they hate.

When I say they haven’t put a dent, look, there’s no question that they have slowed down the implementation of Trump’s agenda. And they have distracted him. I mean, this stuff has not occurred in a vacuum. But from their standpoint, talking here about the Democrat Party media, which are no one and the same thing, if they target a Republican, they are convinced that they can get rid of that Republican.

Now, in the case of Romney, Harry Reid, as I said earlier in the program today, told the press that Romney hadn’t paid his taxes in 10 years. He said a friend of his had told him this, the press said, “Well, Where’s your evidence?” And Harry Reid said, “You’re asking the wrong guy. You need to go ask Romney. He’s the guy didn’t pay his taxes.”

What’d the press do? They went and asked Romney, said, “We’ve heard you haven’t paid your taxes in 10 years.”

Romney: I don’t know what you’re talking about. Of course I have. But they ran with the story. And it later turned out that Romney had paid his taxes in full, he didn’t owe anybody anything and they went to Harry Reid and Harry said, it worked, didn’t it? We won, didn’t we?

Meaning, Obama beat Romney. It worked, didn’t it?

Well, they haven’t been able to say that about Trump, yet. Nobody’s asked them, you people lied through your teeth about this Russian collusion and the meddling business. If Trump had lost, if Trump had been impeached, thrown out of office, they would have said, it worked, didn’t it?

The point is, they don’t care whether it’s true or not. But they are beside themselves that none of it has worked. And so they’re gonna keep on telling you, folks, every day and a half to three days there’s gonna be one of these, quote, unquote, bombshells that’s gonna drop from here to the election.