Donald Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence, said Saturday he plans to release his tax returns before Election Day, even as the GOP nominee has continued to resist calls to release his own tax returns.
“When my tax returns are released, it’s going to be a quick read,” Pence said Saturday in an interview on WABC Radio, adding that he is also in the process of completing his financial disclosure forms as required under federal law.
Pence spokesman Marc Lotter confirmed to CNN on Saturday that Pence plans to release his tax returns before Election Day.
“He said in that interview that it would happen before the election,” Lotter said when asked for a timeline on the release of Pence’s tax returns.
Pence’s decision comes one day after Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, and her running mate Tim Kaine released their tax returns to the public.
Clinton on Friday released tax returns dating back to 1977 and Kaine released ten years of tax returns, giving voters insight into their annual income, charitable contributions and tax rate.
Trump, meanwhile, has said that he will not release his tax returns while they are under audit by the IRS, though there is no law prohibiting him from doing so. Trump’s tax returns going back to 2009 are under audit, according to his tax attorneys, making it highly unlikely Trump will release his tax returns from recent years before voters head to the polls in November.
“I think he’s made it very clear, he’s going through an audit at this time and will release the taxes when that audit is complete,” Pence told WABC.
But the Clinton campaign is continuing to ramp up the pressure.
“Every president since Richard Nixon, and including Nixon — now he was not known for the most elevated ethical standards,” Kaine said Saturday at a campaign organizing event in Manchester, New Hampshire. “But I will say, even Richard Nixon released his tax returns to the public when he was running for president. Because, he said — as has every major party nominee of both parties since — the American public have a right to see my tax returns.”
Trump would be the first major party nominee since 1976 not to release his tax returns.